Minecraft: Updated
by ZathromX
Summary: In the year 2020 Mojang releases the biggest update for the MMO survival sandbox game known as Minecraft and together launched a worldwide server, Zach a former player who quit in 2016 was brought into the game by an unknown entity and sets out to find a way out, in his quest he meets companions, unravels the secrets of Minecraft and for what purpose he was chosen to do so.
1. Update 1: Prologue

Chapter 1 : Prologue

"I couldn't move, where am I?" I took a good look around me watching as people fled away from the village, and as the roaring flames around me consume the house and spread like a wild fire.

"Right now I remember, I got blasted by a blaze" I said.

I was surrounded by ﬂames and the screams of people. I've only got about ten percent of my health left. The house I was shot into was burning and could crumble any second. The pain I was feeling was unbearable, why did they have to add pain to this game. Suddenly

"Zach!" A voice shouted.

"Zach! Get up!" The same voice shouted again.

I could hear someone calling out to me, but I couldn't get up even if I wanted to right now.

"Damn I thought that my life had some more purpose in this new world"

"I guess not" I gave a horse cough as I slowly look up at the moon.

How did this all even start? Right it started with that update, the update that changed Minecraft forever.

Minecraft, Minecraft is a survival sandbox MMO created by the company Mojang located in Sweden in the year 2010. It's brilliant creator Mark Pennerson going by the name of Notch. Minecraft was your standard MMO that can be played alone or with others, it had all the basic requirements for it to be called a survival MMO, monsters, items and activities to make the game worthwhile and be able to survive in the world.

There was one feature that made this game stand out from the other games in the same genre. The fact that the graphics engine used was not anything like the 3D graphics used in other games, but used the standard pixels and blocks. It was because of this that building in this game was so easy because all the building materials you needed were made in blocks with only your hands as your tools. Although the one trait that made this such a hit in the  
gaming world is that the fact that you don't just survive in Minecraft it's the fact that you build the world around you. You decided what you would do and what the world will become.

Minecraft was able to give to gamers the one thing other games can't do create a world that suites you, however you want it. The one reason any gamer would enjoy playing any game is that the world is not real, meaning that the player can play a world not connected to the world he or she is living in and do what ever he or she wants to make the game enjoyable and escape the real world entirely. In a span of a few months millions of gamers have bought Minecraft and became a worldwide known game available to everyone from all countries. I was about eight when I ﬁrst discovered Minecraft and only bought the full version 2 years later in 2012.

The second I started putting my hands on my mouse and keyboard I felt like I can do anything I wanted and was soon addicted to the game. Over the years and as new games came by, millions of players came to think that Minecraft was getting dull and boring and started to leave Minecraft. The game did have its fair share of content, mods and maps to keep the players busy and contented, but that was not enough to keep a few million players from leaving the game. I was one of those players who left. I left the game in 2016, not until 2020. In the year 2020 Notch announced Minecraft's biggest major update which took the gaming world by storm. Along with it Mojang launched a worldwide vanilla mega server with a an exclusive capacity for 5 million players.

Every minecraft player former and present wanted to be apart, as soon as the news hit the sales for minecraft skyrocketed, and it was all over reddit, IGN, and every other news and gaming websites. I was pumped for it as well and was committed to buy the game again, problem was I bought it on the day of the launch, but on that day... on that day my entire world changed forever.

What about me? Who am I? I don't really know, well I guess I wouldn't really call myself as a normal person even before I got dragged into this incident and I at the moment I don't really think it matters anymore, but I'm about to die anyway so why not? . I never liked reality in the slightest, I had no family to back me up nor did I have any friends who I can talk and relate to, everything just sucked. I was an shy and unsociable nerd who loved to play games to escape the real world, unlike the world I lived in playing games made me have a purpose, a goal, an objective on what to do in your life whether it be saving the princess or saving the world you actually have a purpose and even if the game doesn't give you one it's not limited to the real life you can act and live a life not bound to the limitations of the real world.

Minecraft was one of those games that fulfilled that purpose entirely, I played it day in and day out non stop. The unlimited possibilities that can be done was extraordinary it felt like heaven, building castles, slaying mobs, going on adventures and discovering new things, I loved the world and I wanted it to live on. Even though I left Minecraft in 2016 I still thought of it as one of the best games I had ever played and was happy to know that I played it, I just never thought that my reunion with the game was going to be so short lived. Enough about me though let's go back to where it all began about two month's ago...

It was evening I was rushing to my apartment on my bike from the nearest video game store after buying the game again.

"I've gotta make it in time" I panted trying to catch my breath.

The thought of me being one of those 5 million players was my driving force and playing the game again made my heart rush with adrenaline. Cycling even faster that my bike can break and my legs can give in any second. As soon as I saw my apartment I got of my bike, threw it aside on the side walk and ran.

"I've got to hurry c'mon hurry...!" I bashed through the door and sprinted to my bedroom, turned on the computer, logged on to my MC account put in the code that I bought, a few minutes later everything was downloaded. I put in my old skin I used when I played Minecraft, put in the server's name. The server name popped up My heart raced so fast I felt that time had slowed down for just about a few seconds before I left clicked the server name with my mouse.

"Done...it's done, I just hope I made it in time" I panted.

"They said that you know that you were accepted if a congratulations window pops up on the screen the next day" panting with relief I dropped myself on the chair staring right in front of the computer, my heart didn't slow down not one second did it stay calm. I tried to do whatever I can to calm myself down but nothing seemed to be helping me. In my mind the words continued to chant on and on, "Will I make it?" "Did I make it?" "What am I going to do first?" "God! I hop I made it!"

So I just decided to go to bed but I couldn't sleep or do anything not until it has been conﬁrmed. I ﬁnally fell asleep after some time later that night. I woke up in my bed the next day.I turned my head towards my computer and suddenly remembered

"Right the game, I gotta know if I got accepted in the server!" I jumped out of bed and rushed to the computer seat. I closed my eyes and prayed that I got in as soon as I launched the game. I slowly opened my eyes. My mouth gaped wide open with surprise.

The pop up said (Congratulations you are the 5 millionth person to join the server!)

"Yes...Yes! Oh my God Yes! I got in!" I shouted. After about 30 minutes of yelling and rejoicing I soon settled back into my chair. After I closed the ﬁrst pop up another pop up came that said (Would you like to join now? Yes or No. I obviously clicked yes and took me to the server page that said Enter your username. I just went with my old username Zach. I then clicked the OK button on the lower right of the page.

I planning what should I do first build or should I explore I felt like a little kid again just like the first time I started playing. I had so much hype of what the game would be like now that I'm back, but no one could have predicted what happened next. The screen on my computer went Black

"Huh? What happened?" I raised an eyebrow and was about to check for bugs and things that might have caused it but a second later a loud laugh emitted from the computer.

"Welcome to Minecraft Zach! Hahahaha!" The voice laughed maliciously as a bright flash of light followed along with a horribly painful head ache.

"Aargh!" I shouted and soon started banging my head on the table. I banged my head multiple times, but the pain just continued to grow. I then just fell to the floor frozen. Is this it? Am I going to die? Well I guess it's fine I never really had any purpose to live in this world anyway. I do regret though not being able to play the new minecraft before I die, but I can't do anything about it anymore. Just before I saw the darkness a voice came to me and said.

"Your purpose has yet to be completed, Zach" A voice said.

That was the final words I heard, I just wish that I knew what it was. I soon blacked out from the pain.

End of Chapter one

I know the first chapter was a bit boring so pls read until chapter 3 before judging. If you don't wanna and if you think this chapter sucked, pls express your full criticism. Thank you for your help.


	2. Update 2: A not so blocky world

Chapter 2: A not so blocky world.

I slowly opened my eyes. In the darkness of my minds thoughts I saw two worlds one being built the other being destroyed.

"What is this...?" I said confused.

A mysterious voice sounded the area.

"It is up to you to decide the fate of this world" The voice said.

"What...who are you?! What do you mean!?" I shouted, but to no avail.

"In time you shall know the truth." The voice said.

Then the two worlds clashed against one another and a ﬂash of bright light ﬁlled the area. I didn't understand what those words meant under all the confusion I was in on the moment but they sounded important. I soon woke up.

"...Huff...huff" I took deep breaths as I put my hand over my forehead relieving myself.

"It... was just a dream" I said. A few seconds later I was surprised that I was actually still moving.

Wait I'm alive? I'm not dead yet? I thought that I died, perhaps that voice was the one that saved me. Maybe I do have a purpose to live, dammit if only she told me what it was. Well I guess being alive is a good thing, but not knowing my purpose after being told is a bit frustrating! Well at least I can start playing minecraft now. I slowly opened my eyes hoping that I would see my computer so I can start playing, but...

"Well putting that aside its about time I start playing Mine...craft?" I said looking at my surroundings.

"Wait a minute where am I?" I wasn't in my room, my computer my entire apartment gone. I took a good look around me, but all I saw was a forest.

"Hm... I must still be dreaming then" I gave myself a little pinch on my arm hoping that I would wake up any second but...

"Ow!...wait Ow?" I cried raising an eyebrow.

"Let's give it another try" I pinched myself again, but to no avail.

"Ow! Okay Ow! Let's stop" I said and stopped pinching myself.

A crazy idea then popped up in my head. Since it was the only conclusion that I could think of, but I didn't really think that this would be possible.

"Wait...Am I inside ...Minecraft ?" I said and paused for a few seconds.

"Oh my God this can't be real!" I shouted with glee.

"Wait if this is Minecraft then..." I went up to the nearest tree next to me, clenched my ﬁst and I punched it.

"Ow!" I retracted my ﬁst from the tree, Damn I didn't think that tree's in this game were that hard and this was how you start Minecraft!? Ok I'll bear with the pain just this once, I continued to punch the tree after 2 more punches the tree's bark was breaking apart.

Good just a few more punches and it'll break and ...it did, but I noticed that it was going right towards me I looked up and, it was about to fall on me! I quickly jump out of its way.

Crash! "Huff...huff" I panted as I put my hand on my chest, my heart was rapidly racing. I've got to calm down... after a few minutes my heart beat ﬁnally slowed down.

"The ﬁrst few minutes in this world and I'm almost dead, God!" I said with frustration.

I looked back at the fallen tree "Well that's new, Notch ﬁnally found out what gravity meant." I said sarcastically.

After calming myself down I then looked at my hand... I was shocked. My hand was not a block either it was round with all the ﬁngers intact together. I then touched my head and I felt my ears, nose everything it was there.

"Wait... this can't be right" I ran towards a nearby water hole bended down on my knees and looked in the water and saw a face. A face hiding behind long white bangs together with a unique hairstyle, beneath were gentle round black eyes with a round face which set me aside from the other guys my age making me look younger from the rest.

The face that I designed was gone. It was my face in the real world the face that I wanted to escape from, the sight sent a chill down my spine.

"No...way...!" I slowly put my hand on my face to see if the face I was seeing in the water was the real thing. I pinched it I rubbed it I did all sorts of things to conﬁrm, but unfortunately for me it was my real face.

"Why of all things did this have to happen here of all places!" I exclaimed.

"Why did the real world follow me here" I started getting even more frustrated, because supposedly this should never happen in a game anyway. The purpose of games like Minecraft is to escape real life not remind you of it. I hope there's an update that changes that in the future, if they can still update.

"Well at least my hair and eye color is still the same as how I designed my skin" I tried to relieve myself.

"I don't remember the forum saying that they change the blocky pixel graphics to rounded 3D graphics and this isn't any texture pack I've seen before" I said trying to make out my situation.

On the forum it said that they changed some the graphics of some parts of the game, but I didn't think it would be to this extent. I rose back up to a seated position on the ground, I then turned to what I was wearing. The clothing my skin is wearing is a black jacket with a hood, black pants and black shoes. I then looked around my sight I saw the a hud with the 3 things I needed to see , ﬁrst my health which used to be 10 hearts in the lower left but now replaced by a health bar at the upper left which was 100. Second my level counter, now located beside my health bar. Lastly what they added was an MP bar since the sites forum did say that they were adding skills to the game, My MP bar was 150. There was no more hunger now, I wonder why. Something else was missing though...

"Well they did mention that change on the site's forum so I guess that should be normal, they didn't say they were removing the item boxes though" I then looked down and noticed a belt at my waist with five slots.

"Ah so that's what happened they replaced it with a belt, but only five slots?" I said puzzled.

I then looked in my belt and found a rolled up piece of paper in one of the slots, it was a note. A window popped up with the text.

The note said: Welcome all players to my worldwide server, I'm sure your all confused of what is happening please do not worry all of this is apart of the update we made to increase your experience here in Minecraft Thank you and let's all have a fun time playing! Signed Notch. At the end of the note it says: call up the different Windows by saying any of these ,stats , equipment, inventory, friends list, mail and skills.

"Ok then, stats!" I shouted.

After I shouted a window instantly popped up with details of my health, status effects and attributes.

"Woah...is this even Minecraft anymore?" I scrolled down and called the other windows. I went to the attributes window. The attributes given were strength, defense, agility, intelligence, knowledge and wisdom. Currently all of them are at ﬁve. I tried out the rest of the 5 options and they all seemed to work. I put the note back inside my inventory. After trying everything out I decided that put some thought into the situation I was in. It took me some time to accept that all of this was actually happening, everything in this world was right in front of me. I was so confused and had so many questions. How did Notch make this happened? Why did this happen? Where's Notch to answer any of my questions? and so much more. Although I was trying to assess the situation at hand, I was quite happy and excited that the fact that I'm here in this world fully alive and moving freely. My heart was racing I felt more alive than I ever was in the real world Putting everything aside I gathered my thoughts and took a deep breath , I was still confused in a number of ways but if this world is real then I've got to start preparing for the big journey ahead.

In Minecraft the ﬁrst step for you to start surviving is to punch trees with your ﬁst without any tools to get wood, but that not how you really start Minecraft the ﬁrst step is to actually secure a bed. Beds, beds in Minecraft served a very important purpose for the player surviving the game. Beds act as a save point for gamers to respawn at whenever the player died it also acts as a safe haven for many whenever they are low on health, hungry, escaping mobs or just to skip time.

In order to get this item you would need to craft it using the following materials 3 wool and 3 wooden planks. Wool comes from a sheep after you kill it or shear it. Wooden planks come from wood after you cut down trees and craft them. To put them together you would need a crafting table made with 4 wooden planks.

I got on my feet and collected the items from the fallen tree and started sprinting in to the forest in search for wool. After hours of searching through the forest I still could not ﬁnd any sheep. In the afternoon I decided to take a break.

"I couldn't ﬁnd sheep anywhere here, hopefully I can get some wool before nightfall" I panted.

I felt my stomach grumble, I guess that's why they removed the hunger bar. I looked in my surrounding for anything I could eat. I heard a nearby sound and quickly went straight for it.

"Oink" It was a pig. Pigs are one of the greatest sources of food in Minecraft, they drop raw pork which can be eaten to reﬁll hunger. I took a long look at the pig and noticed that it wasn't blocky either, it was round just like everything else. Using the 3D graphics I couldn't tell the pig apart from what a real life pig looked like. I guess the 3D graphics also affected the animals in the game as well.

"I don't have a weapon, but ﬁsts will do just ﬁne." I readied myself for my attack, and soon started charging at the pig. The pig noticed me and started running the other direction.

"Oh no you don't!" I started sprinting after it. I soon caught up and punched it.

"Oink!" The pig yelped and stopped. The pig was disoriented shaking its head.

"This is my chance !" I stopped and rained consecutive blows on the pig. On my last punch it let out a loud squeal. It then started to glow and afterward explode into dust, in its place were two pork chops.

"Huff... Huff" I picked up one of pieces of raw pork and started eating, my tongue then felt a slight disgust.

"Mrphff!" I said with the piece of pork in my mouth as I bit of a chunk.

"I can actually taste this...!?" I said with my mouth full of pork. The taste was so bad I wanted to puke it out immediately, but if I did I don't think my hunger will go back up. I swallowed it with an unsatisﬁed face.

"That tasted horrible!... well I guess since it is raw, but I didn't know you can taste food now!" I exclaimed.

I looked at the other piece and noticed something peculiar. My eyes grew wider to the appearance of the raw piece of meat. It wasn't a ﬂoating piece of pixels and what nots, it was round and was designed to look like an actual piece of meat.

"Don't tell me the update also affects items as well" I said.

"Wait I shouldn't be thinking about this I need to ﬁnd some sheep" I said. I picked up the piece of meat and placed it in my inventory. I continued to search the forest. I was running in the forest until I heard the sound of humming. I went to investigate, it was a small girl. I was about to leave and continue searching until I heard a cry.

Thud "Ow!" I turned around to see that she fell, I rushed over to help her up.

"Are you alright?" I asked offering a hand to help her up.

"Y-Yes" the small girl said.

I noticed her basket on the ground. I picked it up and gave it back to her. She grabbed it back from me and stood back up with her basket in hand.

"Um, Thank you" she said

"Don't mention it" I then looked at her from top to bottom. The small girl was dressed with a sleeveless gray shirt covering her chest downward for her top, she was wearing a gray skirt for her bottom and wore a hat with two black circular balls attached to it. She had short platinum color hair with short hair but with long bangs reaching her eyebrows , kind eyes and a cute face that made her look like a little sister.

"What's your name" She asked.

"Zach" I said.

"So, Zach what are you doing out here in the woods" she asked me.

"I was looking for some sheep to get wool, until I ran into you" I replied.

I was going to say goodbye and run back into the forest but...

"Hey, Zach you wanna accompany me, I'm heading to a village just close by you might ﬁnd some wool there" she invited.

I was surprised when she said that, but I'd have a better chance of ﬁnding wool than searching in the forest. So I decided that I should go with her.

"Oh, um sure Thanks" I said.

I turned around to the path so that we can start walking, but then she quickly came in front of me.

"I forgot to introduce myself" she quickly said

"My name is Terra" She said in a cute voice, holding her basket behind her. She really feels like a little sister, not just by the looks but she acts like one too. Not that I have experience, but she does ﬁt that image.

"It's nice to meet you, Terra" I said with a smile.

"Same here Zach" she said with a smile on her face. We decided to go together towards the village. This was really awkward I was actually together with a girl an actual girl, being silent just made it more awkward for me. I've got to say something to her.

"So..., uh how old are you?" I asked nervously.

Brilliant, the ﬁrst thing I ask and its that. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable around me, I just needed something to say to her.

"I'm fourteen" Terra answered.

"And, You?" She asked and looked towards me, waiting for my answer.

"Eighteen " I said.

"Oh, okay" she looked back at the road ahead unfazed by my answer. Silence then ﬁlled the atmosphere once more, it just made it more awkward for me now knowing that she is so much younger than me. I really do have no idea how to talk to girls.

"Hey, are you usually this quiet?" She asked and turned to me. Well she ﬁgured me out, so I guess I have to come out honest for this question. I looked back at her...

"Oh, um yeah sorry it's just that talking isn't really my thing especially to girls" putting my hand on my neck.

"Oh it's ﬁne, you actually remind me of one of my friends" She commented me with a smile, all I could do was smile back at her. Well that comment helped me be more comfortable and more relax around her. I could ﬁnally get that of my chest. I looked at the basket and got curious.

"By the way, what's in your basket" I asked.

"Bread" she answered

"Bread?" I asked.

"My friends found bread somewhere when they were exploring and told me that I should go and trade them at the village" Terra said.

She kept on using friends instead of their names so I got curious and asked...

"These friends of yours what are they like?" I asked. She suddenly went silent and looked down after I asked. Maybe I asked something I wasn't supposed to ask her.

"I'm sorry, if it's something personal then you don't have to answer it" I quickly apologized.

"They don't want me talking about them to strangers" Terra said.

She answered in a mellow voice and was still looking down. I guess I dampened the atmosphere thanks to that question.

"Ah. Ok I understand" I understood why she would not trust me so easily, I mean we did just meet a few moments ago. Both of us were quiet the rest of the way, until I saw smoke nearby coming from small houses nearby and was surrounded by a fence.

"Hey we're at the village" I said pointing.

End of Chapter 2


	3. Update 3: Trust in her

Chapter 3: Trust in her

We arrived at the village. I thought it was a simple walk in and walk out, but we were stopped at the front gate of village by a rather tall woman. She wore a sleeve less shirt which covered her chest and wore two pieces of cloth stitched to a belt which covered the front and back of the top half of here thighs. There were circular balls on every joint of here body from her ﬁngers to her knees. She had short straight silver hair, below them were red eyes full of disgust pointed towards us. I was easily able to walk in through, but it was a different story for Terra.

I looked behind me to see if she was there but she was stuck at gate. I went back to see if everything is alright, until the tall woman suddenly punched her on her shoulder. Terra fell to the ground. I rushed to the gate to see what was going on.

"Terra!, are you hurt!?" I asked worriedly.

"I'm alright" Terra answered while she was holding her shoulder. I brought her back up to her feet and looked towards the tall woman.

"Hey! What was that for!?" I shouted. Her eyes grew narrow after I asked. It took her a few seconds before she responded to my question.

"She is not allowed to enter the village" she pointed at Terra and answered in an annoyed tone.

"Why!" I shouted impatient for an answer.

"Because, she is a mob" she answered were with the same tone.

"What!?" I looked at Terra out of surprise and was speechless. She had her head down guilty.

Mobs, Mobs in Minecraft are divided in two groups. The ﬁrst group being friendly mobs consisting of animals like cows, pigs and chickens, while the other group consists of monsters like zombies and skeletons which are not friendly to players and villagers. I thought that this girl was a native or another player, but not a mob. Even though I heard those words I still couldn't accept that this girl was a mob.

"How would you know that she is a mob?" I asked.

I could tell that she was getting really fed up with all the questions I was asking, but I had to know for sure if Terra was a mob or not.

"I'm an iron golem don't you see" She said.

As soon as she said those words I took a long look at her one more time. I then noticed a thin vine wrapped around her right arm and right leg. That explains her body structure and her actions towards Terra.

Iron golems are like body guards to players and villagers over 3-4 blocks tall these mobs were born to serve and protect their masters, other players and including villagers from mobs. They can easily distinguish friendly mobs from monsters. "An iron golem?" I answered in a surprised manner. If she is an iron golem that would mean that Terra really is a mob.

"That's right, so if you could please stop defending that trash" she said in an arrogant tone. Then looked at Terra, with disgusted eyes.

"And you, if you could kindly kill yourself that would save me the work of doing myself" She said with the same tone looking towards Terra.

She turned her back to us and started to walk away. I looked back at Terra she was stuttering with fear, probably of me abandoning her. Even though I knew that Terra was a mob, I wasn't scared of her,a girl like this cant be called a mob, even if we just met just a few moments ago the girl beside me is a person that I trust and I'm willing to defend her.

"She is not a monster!" I shouted to get her attention.

"What?" She turned back to me with furious rage in her eyes. I knew I was taking a big risk, but I continued to talk.

"I can understand that your actions are reasonable, but she is not a monster!" I shouted again.

"I see, your one of those idiots who think that humans and mobs can become friends and after end up dead for being naïve"

"Even if I am naïve, I trust this girl and I'm not going to leave her" I said.

I still continued to argue, and slowly made her more angry. She stomped her foot which made a hole in the ground. Her eyes ﬁlled with fire, looking towards us.

"Eeek!" Terra shrieked and started to hide behind me after that.

"Why would you still trust that girl even after ﬁnding out that she is a mob!" She shouted at me, demanding my answer. I mustered up all my courage I can and spoke what was on my mind.

"In your eyes this girl may be a monster, but in my eyes she is just like every other person in this entire world who deserves to live like everyone else!" I said.

Everything was silent, nobody moved an inch as if frozen by my words alone. Terra was still behind me staring at me, I looked back at her and gave her smile.

"Let's go Terra" I said.

She nodded back at me and we walked away from the village. I looked back behind me if the guard was going to do anything, but she just stood there. Terra was quiet while we were walking, I was a bit worried. She started talking to me again when we were at a considerable distance from the village. She detached herself from my back and walked beside me.

"I'm sorry for bringing you into that Zach, the morning guard would usually let me in no problem" Terra said She spoke in her mellow voice, holding her basket behind her with her head facing down. She must feel at fault for what happened just a while ago.

"It's not your fault, everybody has their own issues" I tried to console her, but she was still facing down. She made a short pause before speaking again.

"Thank you, for defending me back there with the guard and all. It means a lot to me that you have so much trust in me, despite the fact I'm a mo-" Terra said. Before she could ﬁnish her sentence, I looked at her, kneeled down and held her by her shoulders. She looked surprised as soon as I held on to her.

"...!" Terra's expression turned from guilt to surprise.

"Could you stop calling yourself a mob, because your not. Your Terra and to me your a person...a person that I trust" I gave her a gentle smile to ease her and patted her on the head. Her face turned a bit red as I let her go. I looked back up at the sky and noticed that the sky was getting darker.

"I guess I'll be separating from you here, I hope I'll see you again sometime" I said. I stood back up and was supposedly to run back into the forest but...

"Hey!, why don't you come with me" she suggested I looked back at Terra with a puzzled face.

"Me and my friends have a house not far" she said

"I don't think your friends are going to welcome me with open arms when they see me" I told her.

"Don't worry I'll convince them somehow" she said determined.

she said afterwards with a determined face. Knowing that Terra was a mob and probably her other friends are too, I was taking a big risk if I were going to a place full of them. There was no guarantee that Terra would be able to convince her friends to have the same trust as she does in me, but if there are mobs like Terra out there then I guess this is worth a shot.

"Alright then, thanks" I smiled.

"Thank you!" She gave me a smile and latched onto my right arm.

"...?!" My expression immediately turned to surprise.

"Can I hold you like this the rest of the way?" Terra asked. I was surprised when she latched on to me, because I have no experience when it comes to girls so I didn't know what to do.

"Um, okay" I said nervously.

"Yay!" Terra exclaimed. She replied with a smile and let her head rest on my arm. She looked really happy when I said yes, so I guess I'll let her be for now.

"Hehe..." She started to giggle

"What are you giggling about?" I asked.

"No it's just that your face is so red right now... Hehehe"

"What?... Wait!... It's nothing!" I said.

My face was so hot I didn't notice I looked away from her, but she still continued to giggled. Whoever's idea to put reactions in this game is really gonna get it from me when I ﬁnd him.

"Hey Terra which type of mob are you, if you don't mind me asking" I asked.

"Oh, I am a silverﬁsh" she answered

"Ah, so that's why your name is Terra, like the earth right?"

"Yes! Thanks for noticing! It took my friends forever to ﬁgure that out"

We continued to talk along the way until we reached a small cottage near a lake side. We were just a few 10 meters away from the house. Terra quickly let go of my arm and gave me a stern face.

"Stay out here for now, while I try to reason with them, do not let them see you they might try to kill you if they do, if they do see you run, I'll give you a signal when we're ready to let you in." She was giving me a lot of instructions it was hard for me to keep track of all of them.

"Okay" I replied to her and was about to turn around, until Terra grabbed my sleeve. I looked back at her, she was facing down.

"Zach I don't want to see you hurt or dead because of me, so please follow" She wasn't the cute smiling girl I found this afternoon, this time she was serious. I nodded back at her. She gave me a smile and let go of my sleeve.

"Alright, I'll be back" She walked towards the cottage.

She opened the door and quickly shut it behind her so her friends won't see me. I waited there outside the house and before long I didn't notice that it was already midnight. I noticed that my stomach was grumbling. I took the other piece of pork from my inventory and ate it.

"Bleh!, I can't get used to the taste, next time I'm eating I'm cooking it!" I said with my unsatisfied expression.

"Well at least I'm not hungry." I said.

I looked at the cottage, waiting for Terra to come back out any second.

"It's taking a long time for Terra to come back out, it's already midnight." I said.

I guess she's having a hard time trying to convince her friends to trust a human like me. I wonder what her friends are like. Well I don't think that they're going to look blocky or look like actual monsters from after what I've seen today. Come to think of it the iron golem I saw this afternoon wasn't blocky either or looked like an iron golem from the original game, she looked human along with Terra and me. The pig and the raw pork were also rounded and so was the forest. So I'm guessing the update changed the graphics for everything and changed the block system and the amount of resources acquired when blocks/materials from the environment are gathered. Besides the fact that the graphics have been changed, for most of the games friendlies and mobs to look human, but the fact that they can also talk and have feelings just like people is strange.

"Sigh" I let out my breath.

When I ﬁnd out more about this world I only keep getting more and more questions. The fact that I am here in Minecraft right now has left me with so much questions as to what caused this to happen and why. I want answers, but the only problem is where's Notch. I looked up and dazed into the night sky.

"Where are you Notch, where are you" I said.

Shfff,

"...!?" I heard a rustle behind me. I quickly turned around to see what it was, but nothing was there. Then I felt a slight chill down my spine. I quickly looked back only to meet a knife pointed at my neck.

The person pointing the knife at me said with a stiff voice. "Don't move or your dead".

End of chapter 3

Pls express full criticism


	4. Update 4: Close Encounters

Chapter 4: Close encounters

The person pointing the knife in front of me was a short girl wearing a blackish blue long sleeve skirt shirt with stripes on the sleeves covering her flat chest and wearing shoes and long socks with the same color. She had dark purple hair with two short bushy twin tails tied with two red beads on each of the tails. She had a cute young face and red eyes with a mean stare. It looks like she is one of Terra's friends, judging by how fast she was able to get behind it would be pointless to run away now. What should I do? The girl in front of me started to talk.

"We heard the whole story from Terra, but we still don't trust you." She said.

I guess Terra wasn't able to convince them. Better get out of here.

"It's because I'm human right, if that's the case I understand I should get going" I told her.

"I won't tell anybody about this place" She gave me an even meaner look. I immediately went silent.

"Didn't you here what I just said we don't trust you" She repeated.

"You ﬁlthy humans always murder us for materials, if it's not that you murder us for pleasure" Her eyes became narrow as she looked at me.

I can admit that I used to be like that back when mobs actually look blocky and are supposed to kill you but that was before I came to this world and met Terra.

"I'm not like them, so please trus-" I said.

"Like hell I can!" She shouted and put the knife closer to my neck. I swallowed my fear at the moment and tried to look calm. I guess not all the mobs I encounter will be like Terra.

"Don't you dare tell me that!" She shouted again, tears started dripping from her eyes. I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"Do you know how many of my friends and family have died by the hands of your kind." She said as her head tilted downward.

"We may be mobs, the truth is you humans are the real monsters!" She tilted her head back up as she looked at me with hateful eyes.

She was angry and at the same time sad. It seems that she has been through a lot, I don't think comforting her would really help my situation, but I couldn't just do nothing in front of a crying girl.

"I..." I was about to say something when I saw a small glint of light in the bushes in behind her. I couldn't see what it was until I noticed it was coming straight towards us.

Whoosh

"...?" I squinted my eyes to get a better view. It was an arrow, from how it was aimed it's going to hit the girl in front of me. She was looking at me with the same mean stare from before. I've got to do something quick before she gets hit.

"Um, hello what are you looking a-" She said.

"Get down!" I shouted. I grabbed her shoulder and pushed her aside.

" Kyaah!" Thud She screamed loudly as she fell to the ground.

"What do you think your doing you ﬁlthy hu-"

"...!" Before she can complete her sentence, she gasped and went silent as she saw me. She was on the ground, looking at me with wide eyes. I looked back at her with the arrow in my leg.

"Didn't I tell you, I'm not like them" That was the last thing I said before I fell on my knees.

"So this is what taking damage in this world feels like... Heh" I could actually feel the arrow through my leg and the pain it was giving me was unbearable, this wasn't a simulation created by the system this was real.

"Zach!" A voice called.

"Zach!" The voice called again. Someone was calling my name. I looked in front of me it was Terra, she was running towards me and followed by three other people.

"Zach are you alright?!" She had a worried expression and soon bended down to look at my injury.

"Yeah, I'm ﬁne" I said. I gave her a smile trying to relieve her worries and turned to the arrow lodged in my leg. It took out thirty percent of my health I should be healing now, but my health bar didn't move an inch. Oh right, no hunger bar means that I cant just heal by eating food. Is it because of the arrow? I have to pull it out soon or else my health won't go back up.

"Come on let's get you inside" Terra said and pulled me, but as soon as I stood up...

"Alright, Ah!" Terra tried to help me, but pain shot up from my leg, I've got to pull it out. I gripped the arrow and pulled it.

"Erragh!"I gave a shout of pain as I pulled it out.

"Zach are you alright?!" I got the arrow out of my leg and threw it aside. I looked at my health bar it was starting to go back up bit by bit. I guess healing is also different now.

"I am now" I said.

I got up on my feet. One of the girls help the purple haired girl on the ground. They all went straight to the door. I followed them inside. I stepped inside and they were all standing there waiting for me.

"Please sit we would like to talk to you" Said one of the girls.

I quickly sat down on one of the chairs. There were 5 girls in front of me including Terra, the purple haired girl and 3 others I don't know.

The ﬁrst of the 3 was a gray haired girl, she had a long ponytail reaching her back. She was dressed in gray clothes her top being a short sleeveless vest with her breasts that could explode out of her chest. The only problem is that it did not entirely cover her breasts, there was a zipper but it as only zipped at her neck and a clip at the bottom to keep it together, but in the middle of it her breasts can be seen. I tried my best not to look there while she was in front of me. She was wearing long gloves at her fore arms. For her bottom she was wearing short shorts with knee socks and gray shoes.

"Okay, before we start I would like to say that we are sorry for what happened a while ago, we wanted to see if we can really trust you" She bowed down as a sign of respect. I was a bit surprised I'm not used to this kind of politeness. I was starting to feel embarrassed and didn't know what to say to her.

"Um, well I am still alive so it's okay" I said nervously. She raised her head and smiled, I smiled back at her.

"Aw, what! No apology for almost getting shot!" The short purple haired girl shouted and stared daggers at her. Well I guess she seems really mad that she was almost shot at, even if they are friends.

"Oh, right sorry to you too" She gray haired girl said.

"You could have at least told me that you guys were going to that!" The purple headed girl shouted back.

"What were you going to do if I got actually got hurt huh!" She shouted again.

She continued to shout furiously and started to look at each one of the girls. Everybody else in the room had their mouth shut and tried to avoid eye contact from her.

"Again I'm sorry, so please chill out" The gray haired girl said.

"Hmph!" She purple haired girl said. She crossed her arms and looked away. The gray haired girl looked back at me.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce ourselves" She said.

"My name is Alice, I'm a skeleton" She said.

She's a skeleton!? I mean I get the bow and all, but for a skeleton she has quite a large chest.

"I know right, for a skeleton she has an abnormal breast size" A voice said.

I looked over it was one of the other girls. She was short, but not as short as Terra or the purple haired girl with her height at my neck. This girl was dressed in a green hoodie with different shades of green on it. She had pink hair and green eyes. She was wearing green knee socks and green shoes. Her chest had a considerable size as it was covered by her hoodie. I kept my mouth shut, even though she was right.

"Christia! Not this again!" Alice shouted.

"Well it's true" A voice said. I looked at the other two standing.

"You too!?" Alice said.

"It's so unfair, your a skeleton and yet you have such large breasts!" said the other purple headed girl.

"I'm 19!" Alice responded.

"So! We're about a year or two younger than you and yet look at our chests" The pink headed girl said.

"At least you have some!" Alice exclaimed.

So she's just a year older than me finally I met someone close to my age. I stayed quiet the entire time that they were arguing until Terra cut them short.

"Girls, focus can we continue this discussion later" Terra said cutting in between them. Everyone stopped arguing and looked back.

"I'm so sorry, they're just like that" Alice said.

"Um...I don't mind" I told her with my slightly blushed face.

"The person who just commented on my breasts, her name is Christie she's 17" Alice said.

"She's a creeper, she's really nice and expressive, but she has an explosive personality so please don't provoke her" Alice said.

Creepers, creepers are a menace to builders in Minecraft because they will run toward you and will explode and destroy anything in a ﬁve block radius, even I rage quitted with these mobs. I was actually a bit scared when I heard those word come out of Alice's mouth, this is the ﬁrst time I've been this close to a creeper without it blowing up yet. She's only a year younger than me, well I guess that's fine but I'm still a bit petrified.

"Please don't make fun about that okay, because its not going to happen anytime soon." Christia said. She noticed I was looking at her and she gave me a smile and a wink. I didn't know what that meant since knowing me so I smiled back at her.

"The short purple headed girl who almost tried to kill you a while ago her name is Levi. She's 15 and she's a cave spider" Alice said.

Cave spiders are spiders that live in caves and mine shafts and will give a poison effect if hit by one. They are very aggressive and will attack on sight. She was trying to avoid eye contact at me, probably after what happened a while ago. Ah, so she's also younger than me only a year older than Terra. I looked at the girl beside her, the girl beside her was dressed in a long sleeve black skirt shirt in the same design as Levi covering her breasts, She had red eyes, long dark purple hair with a head band with two red beads on it. She was wearing black knee socks and black shoes. (Note: Her breasts aren't as small as Christia's or as big as Alice's its more of in the middle)

"The person standing beside her is her cousin Lilith" Alice said, pointing to her.

So she's her cousin huh, well I can see the resemblance.

"She's 18, she's a spider by the way." Alice said.

Spiders are different from cave spiders because they do not have poison and will only attack at night. They will be friendly during the day unless they are attacked. Hm, there was a person who was the same age as me in this group huh. She looked at me and said with a smile.

"Let's get along well" she said with a cheerful smile. Alice went closer and whispered.

"Don't take that smile for granted" She retracted. I didn't know what that was, but I heeded her words.

"You've already met Terra it seems she has quite the trust in you" Terra looked at me and smiled I did the same. Alice gave me a smile and said.

"Zach, was it?, we hope we can all get along together" Alice said

"Same here" I said.

End of chapter 4


	5. Update 5: Dining with Mobs

Chapter 5: Dining with mobs

Later that night we decided to have a snack. We all took a seat at the dining table.

"Why, don't I make us tea." Terra went to the kitchen to prepare some tea. I then looked at the other girls just staring at me. I just noticed without Terra I can't help but be uncomfortable around them. Crap, what should I say?

"We were so worried when I saw Terra come home with a bruise on her shoulder. When we heard her story we couldn't believe it" Lilith said in a kind voice.

"Well, I ﬁgured as much" I said.

"After you protected Levi, we were ﬁnally able to believe her" Lilith said

"We just didn't expect you to take that arrow though!" Christie exclaimed

"Oh right, thanks for protecting my little cousin even though it was planned" She stood up and bowed

"Oh um, no problem" I got a bit embarrassed, I'm not used to people being so polite in front of me. I don't really see any danger coming from her, Lilith seems like a good person.

"Come on Levi, you too" She patted her back.

"What!? Why must I thank a ﬁlthy human!?" She shouted in a mean tone.

"He should be thanking me if it weren't for me he wouldn't be here in our house!" She exclaimed.

"But, didn't you say you had no idea that they were going to shoot you?" I told her.

"Of course I knew I'm not that stupid!" She said in an arrogant I'm sure she had her reasons for acting that way.

"She can sometimes be stubborn to show her feelings in front of others" Alice pointed out.

"And a bit of brat" Whispered Christia

"Whatever!" Levi then looked away. Lilith sat back down.

"Don't worry there's a cute side under all that stubbornness." Lilith said,

"Hmph! No there isn't!" Lilith rebuked.

"The Tea is ready!" Terra came out of the kitchen with a smile carrying a tray of drinks for all of us.

She laid down the drinks on the table. Terra sat down with us on the table. We all each took a drink from the tray and started drinking the tea, it had a aromatic smell and actually tasted really good! I mean most of the time whenever I drank tea it was just colored warm water but, this tea had a sweet and refreshing flavor this is the best thing I have tasted this whole day!

"Terra this tea! It tastes wonderful!" I exclaimed.

"We were expecting you to say that, Terra is always the best when it comes to tea." Lilith said.

"Thank you!" Terra's face grew a slight red and turned away.

I guess I can smell food as well as taste them, I wonder what else they added to the game.

"Hey, Zach how long will you be staying with us?" Christia asked curiously with her hands holding up her tea. Everybody else stopped drinking when they heard her ask and looked right at me.

"Um, I actually will just be staying for tonight and will be setting off tomorrow morning" I said.

"What!?" Terra shouted, everyone turned towards her.

I don't know what I said that gave her that reaction, but I was just being honest right there. "Was there something wrong with what I said? Terra suddenly looked down, and put her ﬁngers together. Her face started to get even more red.

"No... it's just that... I was hoping that you would stay a little longer" Everybody else on the table was in total shock. I didn't know what to say to her either.

"Making moves on the new guy, huh Terra?" Lilith spoke with a grin on her face. Terra's face continued to turn even more red.

"No! That's not what I'm doing!" I continued to stay silent because I have no idea what they were talking about. Making moves? What did that even mean? (Hooray for density! Mwahahaha)

"I was hoping that he would accompany me to the village tomorrow just in case that guard might show up" Her face still red and immediately went silent after talking.

"Yeah right" Lilith said with that grin still on her face.

Well if it's that then maybe I really should go with her, I don't want the same thing to happen or even worse.

"Then I guess I should go with you, if everybody is okay with it" Terra looked at everybody with wide eyes, that says "can he?"

"It's alright" Lilith said

"I'm cool with it" Christia said

"Sure, I mean we don't want her getting hurt again" Alice said

"I don't really care" Levi said immediately and took another sip from her tea.

"Then I guess I'll be accompanying you tomorrow" I said. Terra reacted with a big smile.

"Yay!" She really is cute whenever she is happy. It was really refreshing to see her smile like that, after everything that has happened today.

"Um, you'll still be staying with us after you bring me to the village right?" Terra asked.

"Can I even stay here?" I asked.

"Of course no-" Levi was about to say something, but Lilith quickly covered her mouth.

"Sure you can, right everyone?" Lilith answered.

"Yeah" Christia said

"It's alright" Alice said

"Mrrph!?" Levi said with Lilith's hand mufﬂing her mouth with her hand.

"So, are you!?" Terra asked again. Everybody looked towards me, expectantly waiting for my answer.

"Well, uh..." When Minecraft was a game I would usually just go solo most of the time, even on the servers. I guess looking at the circumstances right now, and the fact I'll be here for a long while in this world, maybe I should stay... But I mean will I be alright? I took a quick look back at Terra, she was looking at me with the same eyes and her puppy eyes and her cutest face that was saying "please stay", I couldn't say no.

"Yeah... Sure, I'll stay" I said.

"Hooray!" Terra shouted gleefully.

"Welcome to the team Zach!" Christia said.

"Well since your going to be staying her-" Alice said. Levi removed Lilith's hand from her mouth, slammed her hand on the table and shouted before Alice can complete her sentence.

Slam! "Wait, a minute!" Everybody went silent. She seemed quite mad when she heard that I was staying. She stood up from her seat.

"Why the heck does he have to stay here with us!" She exclaimed while looking at Alice and pointing at me. I guess she still hasn't trusted me enough like the others yet, I mean seeing as how I ﬁrst met her she seems to really hate humans, which was totally understandable.

"Well I mean we do need some extra hands aroun-" Alice said.

"No we don't!, we can do just ﬁne without him!" She cut her sentence short again, she really must not like me to be around her.

"What can he even do !?" Levi shouted pointing at me.

"Humans are rumored to be able to do a number of things like farm, craft, cook..." Alice said.

"Who care about that!"Levi exclaimed Alice was cut short on her sentence again by Levi, she seems quite immature for a girl her age.

"At the very least let me ﬁnish my sentence before you start talking!" Shouted Alice

"Oh, shut up Miss big boobs!" Levi shouted at her.

"What did you say, Princess flat chest!" Alice shouted back

"Not this again" Christia said with a palm on her face.

Alice brought out her bow and an arrow, while Levi brought out her knife. Something tells me that if this doesn't stop one of them is going to get hurt one way or another.

"Wait, wait, wait please stop!" Lilith quickly went over to Levi in order to hold her back from Alice.

"Christia help me hold Alice!" Lilith said.

"Right!" Christia said. both Terra and Christia rushed over to Alice to hold her back from Levi.

At the moment everyone else was trying prevent Alice and Levi from trying to kill each other. It doesn't seem that anyone is able to get through to them and I was the only one left. Maybe if I...no I don't think that would be a good idea, but I don't have any other option other than that so, I guess I'll have to do that. I took a deep breath and...

"Both of you that is enough!" I shouted and everyone in the room was silent and looked towards me.

"There's no point ﬁghting about this so can both of you calm down! I shouted again, it seems to be working so I guess I'll keep up the act for just a bit longer.

"But she started it!" Both of them said while pointing at each other. I guess Levi isn't the only one who's immature among this group.

"What are you girls like, ten years old? Now both of you put down the weapons" both of them obediently followed.

Both their weapons fell to the ﬂoor, I guess it worked. I walked towards the both of them, everyone else let go of both of them and stepped behind me. I was in front of both of them, I raised my hand and both of them closed their eyes.

"Sigh" I let out my breath. I put both my hands on their head and rubbed them.

"Huh?" Both of them said When they opened their eyes again I gave of a gentle smile to ease them. Both their cheeks turned a bit red when I was rubbing their head, I took my hands of their heads.

"You... Aren't going to do anything to us?" Alice asked

"Why would I?" I asked.

"You were mad so, we thought..." They probably thought I was going to do something to them, I guess there are people who still act like this even at this age.

"I'm not that kind of person to do that, okay" I said with a gentle smile.

I looked at Levi and kneeled down to her. I put my hand on her shoulder, she was still had that surprised look from my answer a while ago.

"Look Levi I can tell that you still don't trust me, I'm not going to try and convince you to trust me, but please rely on me" I gave her a smile to ease her afterward. Her cheeks grew red and quickly looked away, after a few seconds of pause she ﬁnally replied.

"Hrrmm... Fine you could stay" she replied in a mellow voice.

"Yay!" Terra shouted in happiness

"But I'm still against it!" She said quickly afterwards.

"In the end she's still as stubborn as ever" Christia said

"Well, there's no changing that about her" Lilith replied

"Alright everyone!" Alice said directing everyone's attention to her. I quickly got back on my feet and looked towards her.

"Since you'll be staying here, you'll have your share of work to help around. Do you understand?" Alice asked.

"Yes" I gave a stern answer

"Alright then, we have a spare room downstairs, we'll show it to you later" Lilith suddenly dashed towards me and put down my hood.

"H-hey! Lilith, what are you-" I said.

"Just be quiet for a sec" I had no idea what she was doing at that moment, but she looked like she was looking at me from up to down, as if she was studying me. This was totally creeping me out, what is she doing?

"Is there something wrong Lilith? Alice asked

"Yeah, Lilith what the problem, is there something on his face?" Christia asked.

"Hmmmm..." Lilith said.

"Lilith?" I asked puzzled.

"Doesn't he remind you of her?" Lilith asked She turned to everybody else in the room.

Her? I wonder who this person is, maybe another friend of theirs.

"Now that you do mention it he does carry the same resemblance" Alice said

"Black clothes, a shy and strict, but caring personality, he's exactly like her!" Christia exclaimed.

"Um, before you keep naming me could you please tell me about this "her" your comparing me to?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, sorry you remind us of a friend of ours" Lilith said

"Who?" I asked.

"Big sister Ander!" Terra answers

"Ander?" I asked.

"Right we didn't tell you, there are still more people in our group besides us" Christa said.

There are still other people in this group huh, I'm actually curious who this Ander is and if there are more members in this group. Hopefully what happened today won't repeat itself when they see me.

"So, who else is in this group?" I asked.

"Just two including Ander" "Ander is an enderman and also the leader of our group"

"What?, I actually thought that you were the leader, Alice" I said.

"Well, I'm just ﬁlling in for her while she's away" Alice said.

"Zach, I would like to warn you that she can be a bit protective over us..." Alice said.

"And scary" Christia adds

"So, she might not hesitate to kill you, when she see's that you are living with us" Alice implies.

I guess I won't be spared from the same events that happened today, hopefully I won't be killed the ﬁrst time I meet her. Endermen, endermen are known to be the strongest mob that you can ﬁnd in the open world. They will be provoke if a player were to look into its eyes for too long, if attacked they will teleport away from the player or attack the player. They are known as relentless and without good gear will kill you in seconds if not killed quickly. I would always stay away from them until I got diamond gear, which makes me even more frightened to meet her now. Terra tugged on my sleeve, I look towards her.

"Don't worry we'll protect you" Terra says with her hands on her chest, I gave her a smile.

"That reassures me" I said.

"She's usually the one who shuts Levi up but since she isn't here we had to deal with her tantrums" Alice complains, I guess things have been pretty rough around here with out her.

"Hello?! I'm not a kid!" Levi shouts

"Yes, but you act like one" Alice says

"Tsk!" Levi flicks her tongue, their relationship is as worse as ever, I wonder how Ander was able to control both of them from going all out.

"I guess she's the reason why Terra trusted you so easily since you look so much like her, along with the rest of us" Lilith implied

"I wonder when they are coming back though" Alice said

"Ah, you said there was one more person besides Ander"

"Um, I don't think that we should tell you her name"Terra said

"All we could tell you is that she's a zombie" Christa said

Of course how could I forget, zombie's. Zombies are known to be undead creatures, they are known to be one of the ﬁrst mobs you encounter on your ﬁrst night in survival. They are weak but with numbers they are viscous to players.

"She is actually the one who's more scared of humans than any of us" Lilith says Well she is a zombie, probably one of the most killed mob in the entire game ever since minecraft was born. From the sound of it she doesn't like humans either.

"Oh, um Zach here's another warning she is the one who Ander protects her the most sooo please be gentle around her okay?" Alice says with a stern voice

"Okay" I nodded.

"And that is everybody" "yawn" Christia yawned

"I'm tired, I'm goin to bed, see you guys in the mornin" Christia says with her tired voice and stands up from the table.

"Yup me too" Lilith says "Finally!" Levi exclaims "Zach the bed rooms are down stairs by the way, you'll see a small hatch behind this door go down there" Alice says pointing in the direction the hatch is.

"Thank you." I said.

"Your not coming?" Terra asked

"I'll catch up" I said.

"Alright then" Terra said

"Later Zach, don't stay up too late" Lilith said

All the girls went down the hatch, I stayed at the table. I stood up and went out the door towards the lakeside next to the house and just stared at the lake. There were many strange things that happened and on my ﬁrst day here.

"The girls I met today were quite nice, since they were mobs I thought for sure they would kill me I wonder what happened to them, and this world" I said.

I'm really glad that I met mobs like this. Even if they were created by the system they're not just NPC's (Non playable characters) they are actual people with feelings, personalities and all the qualities a person would have in the real world.

"Speaking of the girls, Levi was holding a knife. There were never such things as knives in Minecraft before, maybe it's a part of the update?" I asked myself.

A realization hit me...Wait a minute an MP bar, skills, attributes and new weapons that were never introduced to Minecraft before, they are components of a role playing game (RPG for short). RPG's were one of the reasons why I actually left Minecraft in the first place, due to complex combat classes, different weapons, skill, story line and different players which made it interesting, competitive and fun. Hm, Hm, I think I'm going to have a fun time playing in this world.

"I should have seen it sooner" I said.

"Since this is an RPG I guess there's going to be even more equipment here and an MP bar (Magic points or Mana) mean there's going to be magic as well." I said.

Even if this was apart of the update that doesn't explain anything of how I got here, maybe not just me probably every Minecraft player is here. Why did this have to happen, and how was this made possible.

"Sigh I ask the same questions, but nobody's answering me" I sighed.

"Hey! Who are you talking to!" Shouted a familiar voice

Wait what!? I instantly looked around me to see if there was anybody.

"Hello!? I'm right here idiot" said the same voice coming from behind. I turned to the voice behind me, it was Levi.

End of Chapter 5.


	6. Update 6: Midnight Apologies and laughs

Chapter 6: Midnight apologies, and Pranks?!

I turned around it was Levi standing behind me, thank god it was her I thought I was going insane for a moment there.

"Um H-Hey, Levi what are you doing out here?" I asked.

"I came to see where the heck you went of course!" She shouted

"I don't want everyone to regret trusting you if you just ran of!" She exclaimed with her arms crossed, as usual she's always high strung whenever she talks to me.

"So, what about you what are you doing?" She asked.

"Just... thinking" I said looking at the lake.

Did she what I said thought?! I was worried so I asked her.

"Did you here what I said?" I asked

"No, what did you say?" She asked me.

"Oh, um never mind" I said.

"It better not be about me though!" She exclaimed.

Phew, good she didn't here anything I said. I don't think I should tell them yet that I'm not from here, I mean she and the others would surely not believe it but I still shouldn't tell yet, at least not now.

"Hey... uh Zach" Levi said. Wait did she just call me by my name? She kept on calling me a ﬁlthy human just a bit ago, I wonder what came over her.

"Yes?" I said waiting for her answer.

"About...what happened earlier..." She said nervously, rubbing her upper arm.

"I'm sorry...for almost killing you" she said with a mellow voice

"Don't look too much into this alright!, I still don't fully trust you!" She said

"I was just so angry at humans that I wasn't able to realize that there are people like you actually exist in this world." She continued to speak with her mellow voice.

"So... If there was anyway I can make it up to you please tell me!" She immediately closed her eyes expectantly waiting for my answer. I really didn't know what I should say to her, I guess I should still say something to her. I stood up and said...

"You... don't need to make up to me for anything" I said.

"What?" She opened her eyes, puzzled by my answer.

"I said I don't need you to make up for anything" I repeated. Her expression was still questioned by my answer and paused for a few seconds before saying anything else.

"But... why! She answered back.

"You said your friends and family died at the hands of humans, and the reason why you pointed that knife at me was to protect the new family that you have now, for that I forgive you." she paused for a second before replying back to me.

"How..." She said hesitantly with her head looking towards the ground

"How can you, a human get along with us, monsters so easily?" She asked

"Sigh" I sighed, do I really have to say this again.

"Just, because you call yourself a monster doesn't mean that you are one" I slowly walked towards her.

"You may be seen as a monster by others and even you call yourself by that name, but to me..." I paused for a few seconds. I was already standing in front of her, I kneeled down and held her shoulders, she then looked to me.

"To me your not, just because your not human doesn't mean that you aren't a person" I looked at her in her eyes.

"So my request is, don't call yourself a monster"

She fell silent to my words no sounds were made, a gust of wind blew by us as time slowed down. After a few seconds I quickly looked away from her eyes. That was so embarrassing conﬁdence really isn't my thing when it comes to girls. I took a quick glance back at Levi. She was staring at me with her face bright red.

"Levi, are... are you alright? your face is red."

"Idiot! It's nothing! I'm ﬁne!" She shouted, and afterwards looked away from me. She paused for a few seconds before speaking again.

"Your weird" she said in her mellow voice.

"I get that a lot " I scratched the surface of my cheek.

"That's all I wanted to say, I'm going back inside!" She quickly walked towards the front door.

"And get some sleep I don't want you putting down Terra tomorrow cause you can wake up, otherwise I'll kill you in your sleep! stupid human! "Slam" She and slammed the door behind her.

"Now it's stupid? "Sigh" I sighed again.

"I knew that caring atmosphere wouldn't last long, but it was nice to see her like that." I looked back into the midnight sky and smiled.

"Well, even if your not giving me any answers, you must have brought me here with a purpose. She said it her self who ever she is anyway." I said.

"I think I'm going to like this new world" I said and smiled with my hand positioned on the moon as if I was grasping it and closed it. I then placed my fist down and yawned. I guess I was getting sleepy.

"I should go back inside and get some sleep" I walked back towards the house, I noticed that the door was slightly opened. Levi must have accidentally left it open, well that was what I thought but a soon as I opened the door... "Splash"

"What the...!?" A bucket full of water fell directly on my head and found myself soaking wet. Did Levi do this when she got in? I lifted up the bucket to take a peek, the only person in front of me was Lilith. She was wearing what looked to be a dark grey night wear.

"Ku... Ku..ku" She had her hand over her mouth to keep her from laughing but...

"Hahahahaha!" She bursted into laughter from the sight of my confused face, it became pretty obvious to me, who did this.

"Lilith... you did this?!" I said.

"Yeah of course I did" She said nonchalantly

"W-Why!" I asked.

I heard someone's footsteps approaching from the hallway.

"Zach!" It was Terra who was also wearing a similar night wear colored baby blue.

W-why are you wet!?" Terra said and quickly noticed Lilith standing nearby. Her expression changed to a serious expression.

"Lilith, you didn't need to do that!" Terra exclaimed

"What? I did this when you joined the group too" Lilith said.

"Yeah, but-" Terra was cut short by the sounds of footsteps

"What are you guys doing up here." Alice came by wearing her grayish nightwear.

"Yeah, I wanna join too" Christia also came wearing the same nightwear colored green.

"Can all of you shut it I'm trying to sleep!" Levi said wearing her purple nightwear.

All of them immediately saw me drenched with the bucket on my head.

"Ah, I see now what's happened" Alice said, putting her hand over her face.

"You really are stupid to actually fall for that" Levi said in her stiff tone.

"Lilith!, you could have told me that you were going to prank him this early I could have watched too!" Christia exclaimed with her hands clenched and close to her neck.

"Wait, prank?" I said puzzled at their responses.

"Im so sorry Zach, this is how Lilith greets new members to our group, by pranking them" Terra explained

"Well, I tried to warn you, but it's too late now" Alice said

"She looks like a good girl on the outside but, don't let her friendly smile fool you, when it comes to tricks she's quite a naughty one" Christia said

"I see" I took the wet bucket of my head and put it on the ﬂoor. I was going to dry off but...

"I still remember that time where I was able to strip Alice complete-"Lilith's sentence was cut short by Alice.

"Lilith!" Alice screamed and her face grew bright red.

"Or this other time when I splashed Terra with water, her clothes were so thin that you could see her-"Lilith's sentence was cut short again

"NOOOO!" She screamed, and her face grew bright red as well.

I continued to stay quiet as they were all talking to each other, I know that Lilith wasn't able to ﬁnish what she was saying, but even I can tell what the next few words that were going to come out just by Alice's and Terra's reactions. It seems she has done a good number of deeds to them.

"What? your all still embarrassed about those I mean we're all girls" Lilith said raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but Zach is in our group now so please don't talk about stuff like that in front of him" Terra reminds, Lilith gives of a smirk.

"Oh, then how about this other time when we were all bathing-" Lilith sentence was cut short by a loud pounding sound

BAM! Levi bashed her fist against the wall

"Don't. you. dare" Levi ordered with her ﬁsts clenched and eyes with rage and killing intent towards Lilith.

"You've crossed the line Lilith" Christia said. Even Christia was annoyed by the words uttered by Lilith. These all must be embarrassing experiences they all went through.

They were about to go all over Lilith but then they realized that I was still there and looked towards me. All there eyes were towards me.

"Zach...did you hear all...of that" Terra asked

"I-I didn't hear a thing!" I immediately said

"You're, ﬂushed face says otherwise" Christia said with a wicked smile on her face, I shuddered in fear, all of there attention from Lilith was targeted at me. I've got to get out of here!

"I-I'm going to excuse myself!" I was about to run for the hatch but...

"Whoa!" "Thud" I slipped on the wet ﬂoor and lost balance. When I fell the heel of my shoe tipped the bucket and sent it ﬂying...back to my head that is. Today really doesn't seem to be as lucky I thought it would.

"Ow!" I lifted the bucket on my head for a peek and I expected them to all be charging at me but...

"...hehehehe" they were all giggling at the sight of me on the ground. I felt my face getting warmer and even more ﬂushed than a few minutes ago.

"Hehehehe!, I'm sorry Zach your just so weird!" Terra laughed uncontrollably

"You said it Terra!, I knew that you were weird when I ﬁrst saw you, but I didn't think you would be this weird! Hahahaha!" Christia was also laughing at my appearance.

"Hahahaha! Just as I thought you really are a different human" Alice laughed hysterically while holding her stomach.

"Fu...fu...fu...fu" I turned to Levi she had her hand over her mouth and even she was giggling.

"Hahahahaha!" Lilith continued to laugh at me.

"Pfft, Hahahaha!" I felt so pathetic at the time, I couldn't help but, laugh at myself.

For a full whole minute the entire house was ﬁlled with laughter, and afterwards ended.

"Need a hand Zach?" Lilith offered me her hand for me to stand up, while wiping a tear .

"Thank you, Lilith." I got back on my feet and took the bucket of my head, I looked around everyone had rosey cheeks and tears from laughing too much.

"Sorry for pranking you by the way" Lilith apologized

"Don't be, I needed a good laugh too anyway." I said.

"Yeah, because we all know your going to do it again anyway" Levi said with an annoyed face

Lilith looked back and gave her the thumbs up, smiled and winked one eye "Yup!"

"Zack here's a towel" Terra came up to me with a towel in her hands.

"Thanks" I took the towel from Terra and wiped my face and my hair

"Your welcome" Terra said in her kind voice.

"Okay, everyone fun's fun but we've all got a big day tomorrow so let's go sleep" Alice said.

"Zach we'll spare you today, but the next time you hear something like that come out of Lilith we won't be so merciful!" Christia said pointing at me

"Oh then how about this other time when we-" Lilith was cut short again

"LILITH!" They all shouted back at her, it seems she has done quite a number of embarrassing things to them, I hope I don't get caught in one of her traps again anytime soon.

"Alright down the hatch everyone" Alice said opening the hatch

"It's about time!" Levi went down ﬁrst

"Awww, fun's over, Lilith tell me next time when you do these to other people" Christia said

"Sorry, This was the perfect chance so I got excited, I'll tell you next time I promise." Lilith apologized. Both then went down the hatch as well.

I came down after them and saw a hallway. The hallway looked about 8 blocks tall, the ﬂoors were covered with an oak wood and plank pattern in a ﬁve block lane, the walls and rooms on the other hand were built using cobblestone and on the ceiling of the hallway was lined with red stone lamps connected by a single switch at the end of the hall. In my perspective it looked absolutely gorgeous and well made.

"Wow, who built this?" I was in awe just by looking at it, I mean when I was in the game I built castles the size of mountains by myself in survival but even something as small as this is already masterful.

"It was mostly Ander but, we had our part in building this house" Terra said. Well I guess that makes sense, endermen do like picking up blocks and putting them in places who know's where but, whoever this Ander she surely is incredible.

"It looks...amazing" I said gazing at the architecture.

"You should tell that to Ander, she was always the creative one in our group" Alice said coming down the hatch

"There are about 8 rooms in this underground hallway, Zach yours is at the end beside Terra's room." Alice said and pointed at the direction the room was.

"Oh, okay" I said.

"Terra, can you show him the way?" Alice requested

"Yes" Terra answered.

"Alright I'm going to bed, good night" Alice said while stretching her arms

"Good night Alice" Terra replied

"Oh, um good night" I said. She went in and closed the door behind her. Afterwards Terra showed me the way to my room, on the way the others said there good nights to us as well...

"G'night Terra, you too Zach" Lilith said

"Yeah, you too, um by the way where's Levi?"

"She's already asleep inside" Lilith said.

"Were all pure maidens so Zach don't do anything while were asleep alright? " Lilith grinned at me and I knew what she meant by that. My cheeks flushed.

"I told you I am not a pervert!" I exclaimed. Lilith giggled at my red face.

"I'm just teasing you. I'll see you two in the morning then" Lilith said and went back in and closed the door behind her. Inside? So they share the same rooms, they are family so I guess that's normal, and after what they have been through I don't think they ever want to be separated from family. The other two rooms we passed by seem to belong to Ander and that zombie girl.

"Good night you two" Christia said

"Good night Christia" Terra replied back, Christia went inside her room and closed the door.

"Here we are Zach, this is your room" Terra said.

I opened the door and looked inside the room, it was a room with an appropriate ﬂoor format of 4 by 6 block ﬂoor format, the design of the room was the same as the outside, wooden planks for the ﬂoor, cobblestone for the walls and 4 red stone lamps lighting the room on the ceiling connected by a switch next to the door. There was a bed and a closet on the inside as well.

"Zach, I'll be going to my room now, good night" Terra went towards her room and opened the door but, before she closed the door...

"Terra!" I called

"Yes?" She quickly replied

"I wouldn't be here if you didn't trust me, so... Thank you" I bowed in front of her as a sign of appreciation

"Y-you don't need to bow!" She exclaimed with her face red.

" I knew that you were a good person from the moment you came and helped me, that's why I trusted you" She had her ﬁnger tips together with her face still ﬂushed.

"A-Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow goodnight!" She quickly went in and shut the door.

"Um, yeah" afterwards I went in side my room, took off my coat and shoes, switched of the lamps and laid on my bed. I just stared at the ceiling, looking back on my day.

"So many things happened just on my ﬁrst day, I wonder what's going to happen tomorrow?" I smiled and slowly closed my eyes.

"I really am going to like this new world" I said before my eyes were fully shut.

Meanwhile...

"Hehehehe, I'm afraid your going to regret those words Zach" I voice said.

End of Chapter 6.


	7. Update 7: The second day

Chapter 7: The second day

It was pitch black, I couldn't see anything, where am I? A familiar voice sounded the darkness.

"We meet again Zach" it was the same voice from when I ﬁrst came here. I didn't notice before that this voice was actually feminine.

"H-how do you know me?" I asked.

"I've known you for a very long time Zach, since the day you started playing on August 24th 2012." She said

"And, even after you quit on October 20, 2014 I continued to watch, in hopes that someday you would come back to this world" T-those are the exact dates of when I started and when I stopped playing Minecraft, no one should be able to know those details. Who is this person, a hacker or a person I've met before? I'm actually getting really creeped out right now.

"I see my intuition was the correct" She said.

"Please do not be afraid, I am not a hacker nor am I a person you have met before" She said

"Then, please..." I was about to ask her name again, but...

"I'm afraid now is not the time yet for you to know my name" said the voice

"You may ask any other question in the time being" She cant say her name? I guess I'll ask about what she said.

"During our ﬁrst meeting, you told me that "I will choose the fate of this world", what did you mean by those words?"

"What indeed, Zach" I felt this person was making fun of me at the moment, I felt my face slowly warm up.

"Wait! You didn't answer me!" I responded.

"Fu..Fu..Fu..Fu.." She giggled at my slightly blushed face. "It looks like our time here is up." She said

"I'll meet you again soon" She said

"Your journey in this world, has only just begun" A ﬂash of light then lit the empty space, before I knew it was morning. I slowly opened my eyes...

"Another dream? Who was she?" She refused to answer of my questions though, I wonder why. It seems this world holds more secrets than I thought. I looked around my vision and noticed that there was a red mail icon on the upper right corner.

"The mail seems urgent, Mail window." I called and a window popped up in front of me, which had one mail unread. I tapped on it and another window popped up with the contents, it seemed to be another audio message from Notch. The message said:

To : All players

"It turns out that there were a few bugs and glitches on the server on yesterday's launch, for that we are very sorry, but rest assured they are all ﬁxed. There is one last feature that I would like to tell you..."

As I kept hearing the words after, I felt chills run down my spine like a shockwave and those words were...

"The game is locked on a pure hardcore setting, one death no respawns, as you may know you were all summoned to this world for one purpose... To play my game so I decided to give a more thrilling experience, dying in this world would also mean death to your original body back in the old world."

"When you first connected to the sever, the system immediately released a bright and powerful electromagnetic wave towards your brain and with it a bright light which ended with all of you fainted. The bright light that came with the wave was disguised to be a digital scanner directed to your entire body. After the system scanned you it immediately proceeded to digitalize it basically turning your body into a program along with the system. Everyone, all the 5 million players that joined the server has their own code, once you die in this world your code will be trapped in the system until the game has been completed. Your body is not in the real world, no it is here in the system reborn. However, though you have lost your body in the real world there is still hope of reclaiming it. Once the game is completed the system will reverse the process and recreate your body in the real world. There have already have been reports of thousands of players all over the world being sent to the hospitals and the best doctors and scientists trying to find a solution to this. I will not be revealing my intentions for taking such actions, all that matters is that your here... in my world. The only way for the game to be completed is if you venture out to the 4 dimensions of Minecraft now known as Inﬁnitus, Tellus, The Nether Abyss, Aether and ﬁnally Terminus and defeat each and every one of the Raid rank bosses. I wish you all the best of luck"

END OF RECORDING

After the message my mind was blank I didn't know what to do, Why is this happening? How did this happen? the same questions kept coming back to my head. I looked towards my hands, they were shaking I was scared, of course I was. To bring one's consciousnesses to a virtual world just through an electromagnetic wave, not only that, but to destroy and recreate our bodies here and back, our world currently has no such technology to accomplish this! To be able to go this far as to replicating, our facial appearances, five senses and to actually replicate pain, this isn't short to VR, but technology has not advanced far enough to be able to achieve to such a scale and to trap one's body and mind in a virtual world without the original body is that even possible? Then that hit me, he mentioned that we will be trapped here even after death unless the game is completed, that means... There's a chance to make it out of this world without anyone dying! So I've got to start leveling, fast.

Then a sudden knock hit my door.

"Zach are you up yet?!" it was Terra. Right I was supposed to bring her to the village today, I almost forgot

"Um, yeah I'll be out in a minute!" I said.

"I'll be waiting for you upstairs." She said then left the door and went upstairs

I wore my coat and my shoes and quickly went out of my room and head up the ladder hatch. Only Lilith and Alice were awake with Terra waiting for me.

"Good morning Zach" Lilith greeted

"Oh good morning Zach" Alice greeted after

"Good morning Zach" Terra greeted with a smile

"G-Good morning everyone" I guess I'm not really used with everyone being so polite to me so early. Suddenly 3 windows appeared beside each of their heads, I was a bit surprised because I didn't see this yesterday was this apart of the bugs mentioned? The window's had a bit of data of each of them.

Terra's window

Race: Silverfish Status: Non-contracted

HP: Full

MP: Full

(Note: I'm stating full because I cant give an actual number for each of them yet. Imagine it like a full bar. I was supposed to do like multiple slashes like this / to make it look like a bar, but the site wont let me)

Alice's window

Race: Skeleton Status: Non-contracted

HP: Full

MP: Full

Lilith's window

Race: Spider Status: Non-contracted

HP: Full

MP: Full

There wasn't a lot of information about them it only stated their race, and how much HP and MP they each had, there wasn't an exact number, all of them were currently at full. The HP bars were green and the MP bars were blue, seem like a standard MMORPG data sheet to me. No names though strange, and what does uncontracted mean?

"Um, Zach what are you looking at us for?" Alice asked

"Oh, n-nothing" I said waving my hands nervously. I don't think I should tell them that their is a stat window. I'm guessing Christia's and Levi's will look some what the same. Speaking of which..

"Hey, where's Christia and Levi?" I asked.

"Their both still asleep, those two can be so lazy at times" Lilith said

"Oh, um Terra are y-" I looked towards Terra ask if she was ready to go, but I was stunned by what she was wearing. She was wearing a gray shirt with a heart on it, while on the bottom wearing a mini skirt with a darker shade and wearing the same shoes.

"Zach, you were about to say something?" Terra said.

"Oh, I-its just that y-you look cute with your outfit" I looked away with my face in a slight blush.

"T-Thank You" Terra's face quickly turned red, She looked towards Lilith and Alice in the background and both gave Terra a thumbs up, don't know why.

"T-that's not what I wore this for!" Terra said with her face red, she took her basket and grabbed a hold of my sleeve.

"Zach, lets go! Terra said while pulling along my sleeve.

"Um, we'll see you all later" I said.

"Alright then" Alice said and both of them waved as me and Terra went out the door.

After Zach and Terra left...

"They seem to be kicking it off to a good start" Lilith said

"But, maybe we shouldn't have teased Terra as much" Alice said

"Other than that I think they'll make a cute couple" Alice said

"Hm...I think Terra's going to encounter more obstacles along the way." Lilith said

"Obstacles?" Alice asked.

"You'll see what I mean" Lilith smiled.

Back to Zach and Terra

Terra's face was still flushed from Lilith and Alice, I guess they took it a bit to far this time. Terra started talking once we got through a considerable distance away from the home.

"Those Two are always trying to tease me!" Terra said

"I don't think they meant any harm though" I said.

"Oh, right Terra I've wanted to ask you, shouldn't you be mining rather than going to a village trading?

"Oh...Uuuummm" Terra quickly looked away with her face growing red.

"Was there something wrong with what I said?" I asked

"No! It's just that its embarrassing and I know that you'll laugh if I say"

"Don't worry, I wont" I said.

"Ok, its not that I don't like mining its just that... I'm afraid of the dark" There was a brief moment of silence after Terra said those words.

"Pfft...Fu..fu..fu..fu" I tried to cover my mouth as best I could, but I couldn't help but laugh. She really does fit that image entirely

"Hey! You said you wont Laugh at me! Terra yelled hitting my arm.

"No, its not about your fear of the dark, ever since I met you, you always gave me the impression of a little sister so I was laughing of how correct I was" I said.

"Hmph! but, you still laughed" Terra looked the other way

"Sorry, wont happen again, I promise" Terra looked back

"If, you saw me as a little sister...then I have always seen you as an older brother" Terra's head was tilting downward with her cheeks growing red.

"So...Can I call you big brother from now on?" Terra said with her face bright red.

"B-Big brother?!" My face grew red.

"If you don't like it then..." Her expression was slowly turning to sad as she slowly tilted her head down.

"Of course you can!" I said immediately.

"Really?!" She said with a big smile.

"S-Sure!" I said.

"Yay!" She exclaimed. Phew at least I stopped her from getting even more sad, and I guess being called that isn't such a bad thing.

"Hehehehehehe" She giggled and latched onto my arm a second later.

"This again?!" My face slowly warmed up

"Your so fun to tease big brother, Hehehehehe." Terra giggled. I really am going to kill Notch for putting reactions like this in this game when I find him.

Terra was latched onto my the entire way, after 30 more minutes we arrived at the village gate. The night guard was no where to be seen, I hope it stays that way, while were here. I saw 10 men at the gate all wearing leather armor and wielding bows, arrows and swords. As soon as we got there one of the ten approached us wielding a bow and arrow, he was a young man probably in his early 20's with green eyes and with brown hair.

"Good morning Terra" said the morning guard

"Good morning" Terra replied

"Hey, I heard about what happened with Etrina yesterday, are you alright?" he asked. Etrina? must be the name of the iron golem from yesterday.

"Don't worry I'm perfectly fine" Terra said

"That's good news" He turned to me

"My name is Sam, by the way" he said and reached out his hand to me.

"Oh, My name is Zach" I shook his hand afterwards.

"Sorry about, Etrina yesterday she can take her job a bit too seriously" Sam said

"I see" She almost killed Terra you call that a bit?

"So, Zach your an adventurer?" Sam asked. Adventurer what's that? Is it because I'm human? Suddenly a window popped up beside Sam's head.

Race: Human Status: People of the world

HP: Full

MP: Full

No, he's also human, wait... in most MMORPG's NPC's usually call players by heroes or travelers, but the most common name they give to players is adventurers. People of the world is that what they call NPC's in Minecraft now?

"Zach your an adventurer?" Terra looked to me and asked

"Yes, I am" I said.

"That's amazing!" Terra exclaimed with stars in her eyes.

"Since your an adventurer I should give you a little tour of the village." Sam said

"Hey Sam, No slacking!" said one of the other guards.

"Don't worry I'll be back in a sec" Sam said

"Um, Thanks" I replied.

"Don't mention it" Sam said

We followed Sam through the gate to give me a tour, as we walked through the streets people were casually greeting and saying "Hi" to Terra.

"Hi, Terra!" said a passerby

"Hello" she replied back in a smile

"G'mornin Terra" said another passerby.

"Good morning" she replied back

A few more "Hi's and Hello's coming from almost everyone who past by us. They seem to really trust her to be able to talk to her like that, same for Terra.

"They really seem to trust you Terra." I said.

"Yup!" Terra smiled

"All the people who live in this village trusts Terra, its only Etrina who doesn't" Sam said

"You shouldn't worry about her, its her day off so she should just be resting at home today" Sam said

"Oh, I see" Thank goodness we wont be seeing her, me and Terra might be in for some serious trouble if we do. I was then hearing the loud noises headed in the direction were going to, it seems to that there is a lot of people there.

"Here is the market place, where you can trade and sell your items." Sam said. As we pass by different stalls I saw one giving what looked to be coins in my eyes, so that hit me with a question.

"Um, Sam if you don't mind me asking what's the currency of Tellus?" I asked.

"You don't know? Gold of course" Sam said. Oh, of course gold, the typical MMORPG currency, but I didn't see the icon anywhere in my sight though. Right were in Minecraft there's no separate inventory to hold money we have to carry everything in our inventory.

"There's so much people here just in this one market place" I said in surprise.

"Believe it or not this is one of the biggest villages in the vast region of Korath so its only typical that people will come here to trade." Sam said. Wait he said region then that mean's that this is a country, I got to start asking the girls later when I get back later.

"Here, we have a bank they will store all your items and money, all you need to do is make an account and have a license and you can withdraw your money where ever there is a bank." Sam said. So they have banks here too, maybe I should get a bank account while I'm here. We kept walking down the road.

"Here we have the barracks where we guards stay and train" Sam said. It looked to be a 20 by 20 block format raising until 5- 8 floors made by stone, cobblestone and wood, I wonder how many guards are guarding this village alone.

"Beside it we have our doctor quarters and our weapon storage." Sam said. The doctor quaters was mainly just a large clinic made with a 15 by 10 block format made with the same material as the barracks. On the other side the weapon storage seemed to be just a shack and each of those two had two guards in full iron plated armor, they seem like the mean business.

On the front of the barracks was a board with papers stuck to it, I got curious and asked.

"Hey, Sam what's that board over there with all those papers" I pointed

"That's the quest board, many people in the village post their quests there for anyone willing to do the tasks." Sam answered

"I, see" I looked over the quests on the board, but only one caught my eye, Destroy the nearby Goblin camps. Reward 1000G LvL 1-10

"Goblins?"

"Ah, you see we have been getting recent raids from the nearby goblins recently, though we can fend them of their still able to take weapons and food away from the village" Sam said. There were no such mobs as Goblins in the old Minecraft, well now that I think about it MMORPG's you've got to have multitude of different types of mobs in game in order for the player to learn and advance. I wonder what other mobs I'll find here.

"Finally here is our town hall where we gather in times of need and importance and also for celebrations, this is also where the chief works" There were guards in full armor walking around the town hall, must be quite important. I wonder who the chief is? It was already afternoon when Sam finished his tour of the village.

"Well that's everything, I gotta get back to my post before the chief catches me of duty, later you two" Sam then made a dash back to the gate.

"Uhm, Okay" I looked back at Terra

"Hm, I didn't know they had a places like this here!" Terra exclaimed

"Wait, you didn't know? I thought you've been in this village already?"

"No, the only place I've been to was the market everything else is something new to me" Terra said. I guess Terra didn't do anything in this village but, trade huh? Considering she is a mob I guess she couldn't be outside of her home so often, but I guess everything is alright according to Sam.

"So, um Terra speaking of which, where are we going to trade?" I asked

"Oh, I almost forgot! Come with me" Terra said and brought us back to the market to trade. She brought me to a stall made of wood, it seemed like an average stall.

"Thank you, come back again!" Said a feminine voice. The person behind the stall was a young girl with maple orange hair made with a braided hairstyle, she had calm eyes and was wearing a brown robe. I guess she's one of the original villagers designed to look human, well at least they took away those ridiculous noses.

"Good morning Aisha, how have you been?"

"Hi Terra, business seems fine and who's this?" She looked towards me.

"This is my big brother!" Terra said.

"Brother?" She asked with a puzzled face.

"Um! My name is Zach, the... brother thing is a bit complicated to explain" I said with my face slightly blushed.

"Zach huh, Nice to meet you my name is Aisha Ruskford" Aisha said

"Yeah you too" I said nervously. A window popped up beside her.

Race: Human Status: People of the world

HP: Full

MP: Full

"I heard what happened yesterday, Etrina attempted to attack Terra and was protected by an unknown stranger in black, that stranger cant be you can it?" Aisha said with her hand at her chin looking at me. I guess news gets out fast around this town.

"Yeah that was me" I answered with my hand on my nape.

"Well, thanks for protecting Terra" Aisha said

"Oh um yeah" I said. My face made a slight blush

"Seems you found quite the man Terra" She made a wink towards Terra, Terra's face suddenly turned crimson. She then went closer to Aisha.

"Be Quiet!, and that is not what I'm doing!" She exclaimed with her bright red face.

"Fu..Fu...Anyways what have you brought me today Terra?" Aisha asked. She put her basket on the table and took out some roots and leaves from the basket.

"I brought, Aran Leaves and root" Terra said.

"Wow! This is rare, I'll give you 250 gold for it" Aisha said. Judging by Aisha's expression it must be valuable and 250 gold is a lot of money for a starter like me so I got curious and asked.

"Uhm... can you explain to me what Aran leaves and roots are?" Aisha turned to me.

"Sure, you see Aran leaves and root come from an Aran Plant, Aran plants are known to give medicinal properties and boost one's vitality when fighting and also is a core ingredient in much more complex healing potion known as an Aranic potion, which gives one higher defense, attack and has a long term healing effect in battle. Its very rare to find these plants anywhere now a days which makes it even more rare!" Aisha explained, Wow this must be a rare item then, I've got to look out for those when I'm exploring from now on.

"Wait, if its so rare then why don't you just keep it?" I asked.

"We don't usually go fighting so we decided that we should trade it instead" Terra said. Well its not my choice if it was me I would have kept it.

"So is it a deal?" Aisha asked

"Sure" Terra responded and both of them exchanged goods.

"So how's the group lately Terra?" Aisha asked after putting away the leaves and roots

"Everything has been lively now that Zach has joined us" Terra said. She must know of Terra and her friends.

"Zach you joined them?" Aisha turned to me and asked

"Its a long story" I had my hand over my nape.

"Oh, No were running out of time, sorry Aisha but we've got errands to do, Take care!" Terra soon ran into the crowd.

"Terra don't run!" I was about to go after her but.

"Hey Zach!" Aisha called out. I turned towards her.

"I know Terra can be a bit careless and at times a bit childish and immature, but she's a good girl so please take care of her along with the rest of her friends okay?" Aisha said with sincerity.

"Don't worry, She's in good hands, Terra wait up" I dashed after Terra into the crowd.

"Thank you, Zach" Aisha said.

I chased Terra until she immediately stopped, frozen in her tracks. We were in a straight path, people passing through split apart from Terra's path. I felt a familiar hatred coming right in front of her. I quickly dashed nearer to her, and in front of her was... The iron golem Etrina.

End of chapter 7


	8. Update 8: One

Chapter 8: Memories and Resolutions

I quickly stopped. A window popped up beside her head.

Race: Iron Golem Status: Non-Contracted

HP: Full

HP: Full

"You, again I thought I made it clear for you not to show your disgusting face here in this village" She said in anger, I felt a heated gaze ﬁlled with rage and killing intent pointed straight towards Terra. Terra just stood there trembling in fear unable to move.

"It looks like I have to get my hands dirty even on a rest day" She said. I quickly came between them.

"Terra, get behind me" She did as I told her and she hid behind me.

"You again? I'm surprised your not dead yet" Etrina said

"She hasn't done anything wrong, so back off" I said.

"And what!? Wait until she does? I'm not committing the same mistake again! So get out of my way!" She shouted again

"If you want to hurt my little sister then you'll have to get through me first!."

"Zach" Terra said gazing at me.

"Then both of you will die!" She shouted and charged at us with her fist in the air and quickly shortened the distance between us. I jumped to the side and pulled Terra out of the way. Both of us were able to dodge her attack as she hit nothing but air.

"Tch, you little!" Etrina grunted as she raised her fist at us again preparing her attack. I could dodge it but if I did it would hit Terra. So I pushed her aside...

"KYAAH" Terra shouted as she fell to the ground when I turned back Etrina's fist was in close to my face. I quickly jumped out, but she managed to graze my cheek with her fist. Everyone around us heard her cry.

"What happening?" A passerby said.

"A fight? Somebody get help!" A passerby said.

"Call the guards!" A passerby said. They all cried for help as they saw us, I just hope that help makes it in time.

She threw punch after punch each filled with her anger and bloodlust as I try my best to dodge each of them after a few more dodges I felt exhausted and soon started to take deep breaths.

"Huff... Huff..." I panted, but she didn't stop she threw another punch. I dodged it, but I was a second late.

"Gah!" I grunted. Her fist hit a part of my shoulder and managed to throw me back a few meters and I soon found myself on the ground. I looked at my HP bar and saw my health decrease dramatically and 50 percent of my HP was gone, the pain coming from my shoulder hurts like hell! If I took a blow from her fist head on I'd be dead. I tried to get up on my feet, but my body refused and soon knelt on the ground.

"Zach!" Terra called out and ran towards me. She knelt down as I held my shoulder trying to withstand the pain, to be able to hit of half of my HP with just a partial hit with nothing but her fists, her level must definitely be higher than mine.

"It looks like this is the end for you two" She said before making her final charge at us. As I heard her heavy stomps come closer and closer I felt more fear ran through me with each step she took, I quickly covered Terra so that hopefully only I would be affected by the impact of her fist and so she would be able to run. I closed my eyes and thought "Am I really going to die here?" Before her fist made contact with my body, a shadow suddenly casted itself right in front of us then a sudden burst of heat hit the area as her fist hit against what sounded to be metal. I opened my eyes to see a shadow covered by dust and smoke, when I got a clearer image it was a man in full metal armor in front of us wielding a sword and shield.

"C-Chief!" Etrina exclaimed and retracted her fist from his shield. The man let down his shield. Etrina's expression became scared as soon as the man looked at her.

"Etrina we've talked about this haven't we?" The man said in a serious tone.

"B-But!" Etrina tried to reason, but the man lifted his hand before she could say anything.

"Etrina go back home and rest, today is your day off" The man said

"Tch!" She turned to Terra, flicked her tongue and turned to the other direction. The man in front of us turned around, we both stood up. The man in front of us looked to be a middle aged man in his late 30's. He had brown hair, serious eyes with wrinkles on his face and spoke with a deep tone.

"Hi my name is Maxwell Arrol, the chief of Nara" The man said. So this is the "chief" I've been hearing about from Sam, Wait his last name is Arrol this man cant be. A window popped up beside his head.

Race: Human Status: People of the world

HP: Full Status: Married.

MP: Full

"Are you two alright?" He asked.

"Yes, Tch!" I said as a burst of pain hit my shoulder.

"Seems like Etrina did a quite the damage, here drink this." He handed me a bottle of blue liquid. A window popped up beside it.

Low level Health potion

Effects: Heals 5% of HP for a span of 10 minutes

I took the potion in his hands and started to drink it. After I drank it my HP started to rise and the pain coming from my shoulders was somewhat relieved. Finally I had enough strength to stand up.

"Thank you, for saving us." I said.

"No problem" He gave us a smile with a kind expression.

"Your name is Maxwell Arrol? Are you a relative of Samuel Arrol perhaps?" I asked.

"Why, yes I'm his father, you must be Zach. I heard about you when I caught him slacking of at the front gate." He said, I see so he got caught, huh. Too bad for him I guess.

"When I started to hear people saying there was a fight I rushed her as fast as I could. I never knew I was going to meet you this early" He said chuckling.

"Hello Terra, nice to see you again." He said kindly.

"Y-Yes Chief" Terra said with her trembling voice and was still recovering from her shock.

"M-My apologies I didn't greet you formally!" I bowed as a sign of respect.

"Its alright, I should be the one apologizing for Etrina's behavior, she's been tense recently don't know why so I made her take the day off today and rest, didn't think that she would find you though" He said. I raised myself back up.

"If you have the time, can both of you walk with me for a few minutes I want to have a talk with the both of you" He asked us. I looked down at Terra and she nodded.

"O-Of course!" We both said.

"Thank you" He said. We decided to walk with him, I wonder what he's going to say. As we walked together the crowd in front of him parted in to much like the red sea. The passerby's who address him with respect and he addresses them back with the same expression when he met us. I see now why he was appointed as the chief here. We found ourselves at the barrack's going through the building the guards in their armor were in a saluting position by placing their right fist on their left chest. We entered his office and sat on the two chairs in front of the Chief's table.

"The reason why I called both of you here is to talk about Etrina" He said. Changing the atmosphere as he brought up the subject.

"What about her Chief? Terra asked

"There is a reason for her behavior especially against mobs, its about her past" The Chief said.

Past? I wonder what could have happened to make her have that kind of reaction towards mobs nevertheless harmless ones like Terra. Probably nothing to be little of, but what?"

"Her past?" I asked.

"The reason why, Etrina takes her job so seriously is because she has a grudge against mobs and the corrupted. In the world of Inﬁnitus, there are many people who have grudges against mobs, but Etrina's is different. Etrina used to live in another village before she lived here in Nara, the village's name was Rose village. It was a small, but a beautiful village ﬁlled with ﬂowers and happiness all around. The village used to be protected by a magical tree that made a barrier around the village. There she was created by Arnold Castrof and Maria Castrof in order to protect the village. Even though she was created she treated both of them as family and them the same. At those moments her life was perfect until, one day a mob was found at the edge of the barrier. He was severely injured at the time so the people of Rose took him in for treatment out of kindness, at that time Etrina was more lenient when it came to mobs so she casually let him in without suspicion. After he was treated he was thanking them for their kindness, but said that he would like to stay for another week to make sure that his injuries have fully healed. Etrina was easily able to adapt and treated him as one of the people. One night she heard the sounds of screams and explosions outside, she quickly went outside and saw the tree burned with mobs of all sorts going through the village massacring the village. She joined the ﬁght but was too late to be able to stop them. She escaped with Maria and found their way here to Nara. According to Maria, Arnold died that day, she now lives here with her mother. When she arrived she immediately signed herself up as one of the soldiers and trained herself vigorously in order for her to be able to protect the only family she has left." He said. The room's atmosphere was filled with silence, I had now words to express what I wanted to say. I knew that she obviously had reason to hate mobs but, to such a large extent is just unthinkable. I feel so bad now, maybe I should apologize if I see her again sometime. I turned to Terra.

"Sniff..sniff" She was in tears quietly crying and sniffling.

"Terra are you alright?" I asked.

"Y-Yes I'm just a bit sad after hearing that story" She said while wiping her tears.

"She's been through quite a lot so, all I wanted to ask is for you not to misjudge her as a bad person" He said.

"We're sorry we didn't know..." Terra said in as sorrowful tone.

"Its alright its not your fault. Etrina just needs to calm down, and also be more careful from now on, both of you are free to go" The Chief said. Me and Terra both stood up and dismissed ourselves from the office and stepped outside of the barracks door. So there are people with dark pasts too, Sigh I really wish I could apologize to her now. Terra was looking down at the ground.

"Hey, Big brother" Terra tugged along my sleeve

"I know I feel sad too, but who knew she would have that kind of past?" I said.

"I think we should say sorry to her the next time we see her" Terra said

"Your right, but now doesn't seem to be a good time to do so" I said.

"Then its settled we'll apologize to her, I feel like were forgetting something though" Terra said.

"Right you said we were supposed to buy some more stuff at the market place" Terra then brought out a clock and made her eyes wide.

"We have to go Now! Hurry before the market closes, they'll get mad at me for not getting the stuff come on!" She started to dash in the direction of the market place.

"Terra, wait for me!" I ran after her in the same direction.

(30 minutes later)

We were on our way back to the house. We were carrying the stuff we bought which were coal and wood.

"Here let me help you" I said offering a hand.

"It might be a bit too heavy for you" Terra said.

"Don't worry" I opened my inventory window and put them inside.

"They disappeared?! Where did you put them?!" I said.

"Um, here" I said. I opened my inventory window and showed it to her" Her eyes were filled with astonishment and stars.

"Adventurers are so amazing, and now I don't have to carry anything!" She said happily

"fu..fu..fu," I made a slight giggle at the sight of her joy. She really is the cutest when ever she's happy

"Hey! Big brother why are you giggling?" She asked.

"No reason" I said.

"Hrrrmm" Terra's face showed a slight blush afterwards. We continued to walk on the path and eventually got back to the house.

We were already about a few feet away from the doorstep when Terra suddenly tugged my sleeve. I looked towards her

"I'm sorry... I got you hurt" She said, Tears were slowly breaking free from her eyes.

"It's alright its not your fault" I said.

"But it is!" Terra exclaimed

"This time you really could have died and it would be because of me!" She said, Tears flowed down like a faucet from her eyes, I wanted to do something to console her. So I knelt down to her height and gave her a hug.

"Your such an idiot don't you know that, I'm your older brother its only natural that I should protect my little sister" I said.

"But I..." Terra said. She said no words after.

"Its alright now... everything is fine, so don't go blaming yourself for everything that has happened alright?" I told her.

"A-Alright, c-can I stay like this for just a few more seconds?" Terra asked.

"Alright..." We embraced each other for about 10 more seconds until we both stood up. We both headed straight to the door, but I saw something of with the door it was slightly opened. I looked up and there was a glint of metal that flashed through my eye. I instantly knew what it was.

"Terra don't open that door!" I said immediately trying to reach towards her.

"Hm?" Terra pushed it open and the bucket on top of the door fell, but before it hit her I pushed Terra down and we both fell and then "SPLASH" I was able to block the water from reaching Terra, but now I'm drenched in water again... I am seriously going to get back at Lilith when I find her.

"Um... Big brother" I looked beneath me and Terra was there with her face crimson red. Then I realized the position we were in right now, I was on top of Terra with Terra lying under my chest, my face instantly turned red as well.

"T-Terra! I!...Um!" I've got to get up before somebody sees us like this. I then heard voices coming towards us, but they already reached before I can react.

"I heard something from the front entranc..." Alice Froze

"Hey you were about to say somethi...?" Levi Froze

"Must be my trap I placed to signal that both of them came hom..." Lilith Froze

"Again! Lilith tell me when you do these thin..." Christia froze.'

Each of them was frozen in their tracks as they saw our positions and without words to say.

"I-I can explain!" I said. Each of them suddenly had fire in their eyes and charged right towards me.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!" They all shouted and threw their punches at me.

"UWOOOOAAAHHH!" I shouted

End of chapter 8

I was so tempted to go weeaboo and just put Oniichan for the last chapter and this but I said I wouldn't, I know I said anime references but don't expect me to go full weeaboo just yet! I have no lolicon or little sister fetishes, feel free to criticize.


	9. Update 9: Story of Creation

Chapter 9: The story of creation

I went into my room and plopped on my bed.

"Sigh, another tiring day!" If things are going the way they are now I don't think I'll be able to explore this world.

"Well, at least I found a new piece of the puzzle" That story...

(About 2 hours ago)

"Geez, I know you didn't do it on purpose but your such a pervert Zach!" Alice exclaimed

"To do such a lewd thing to Terra you really are a pervert Zach!" Christia exclaimed

"Serve's you right shameless human" Levi said

"I can explain!" I said immediately.

After I fell over Terra, I was beaten senseless by the others for being a pervert, I had bruises and small cuts but, thankfully it didn't take to much HP, I have to stop getting into situations like this, I really am going to get back at Lilith someday. I turned to Terra and her face was still slightly red.

"B-Big brother didn't do it on purpose!" Terra said

"Big brother?" They all said with a puzzled faces. Lilith grinned.

"I didn't think you two would come this far and only the second day too, good job Terra!" Lilith said with a grin towards Terra. Terra's face shot back up to crimson red.

"LILITH!" Terra shouted. Then Lilith went closer to her ear, she whispered something but, I couldn't hear what she was saying.

(Conversation between Terra and Lilith)

("You say that as if your upset, but your actually quite happy inside aren't you?") Lilith whispered to Terra, After Lilith whispered that images started to appear in her mind, Terra's face immediately turned even more red.

"Oh? Was I correct?" Lilith asked with a grin on her face.

"Mmmm...! LILITH this is all your fault!" Terra shouted, Lilith immediately ran out the door and Terra chased her.

"Sigh, she always takes it to far when it comes to teasing us" Alice said.

"How do you put up with it then?" I asked.

"We don't, Ander did it for us, unfortunately she isn't here" Christia said

So she's making the most of it, I really hope Ander is coming back...soon

"LILITH! Come back here!" Terra shouted.

"Mwahahaha!" Lilith laughed

"Hey you two when your done come back inside, it's almost night time!" Alice shouted

I decided to walk around the hose and found myself in the kitchen, I heard the sound of chopping when I entered, it was Christia. A window then appeared.

Race: Creeper Status: Uncontracted

HP: Full

MP: Full

She wasn't wearing her green hoody anymore she was wearing a green apron dress, her pink hair ﬂowing loosely on her back, her expression was calm as with her smile, she looks like she was chopping vegetables. I've never seen her like this usually she's full of energy, I've never seen her make this kind of expression. She then looked behind and noticed me.

"Z-Zach! I didn't notice you, were you here the whole time?" Christia said

"I just came in, so um what are you cooking?" I asked.

"We're having stew tonight so I need to prepare all these ingredients" Christia said

"Hmm... Hey since your here you can help me cook!" Christia said

"Wait what?! Why?" I exclaimed.

"I need someone to help me, plus it saves a lot time" Christia said

"But, I don't know how to cook!" I said trying to get away.

"Don't worry you'll be ﬁne" Christia said.

"B-But I!" I said before I was cut short.

"Come on just for this once, please" Christia said in a whiny tone.

"Hrmm, ﬁne I'll try, but don't blame me for not warning you!" I said.

"Great, but to start of take of your coat and wear this" Christia handed me an apron to wear. A window popped up next to it.

Apron

Status: Stitched

Durability: 25

+5 Cooking skill.

Description

Standard Apron used for cooking.

\+ 5 Cooking skill? Well I guess with this I wont be so bad. I took the apron, took of my coat, placed it on another table and wore the apron.

"Alright now you can start you can chopping these" Christia pushed a bowls of vegetables. Windows started appearing next to the bowls.

Potatoes Status: Fresh

Description Grown crop used for cooking.

There are potatoes, carrots, and other assorted vegetables, all them had the same status and description.

"Here use this" Christia lent me a knife, a window appeared next to it.

Standard kitchen knife. Status: Sharp

Range: Very short

\+ 1 Attack

Weight: 10

Durability: 100

Description

Standard Iron forged into a kitchen knife.

Hm, there's even a text on it. I took it from her hand.

"Alright now I'm gonna prepare the meat, I'll be back" Christia went out of the kitchen. I turned back to the ingredients in front of me. I took a carrot and put it on the chopping board. After a minute I ended up chopping the carrot into thin slices, well not thin each of them had their own thickness. Then a window popped up in front of me.

Cooking skill increase: +1

My cooking skill increased? Well it is to be expected these skills are usually earned when one does an action related to the skill. I was about to continue chopping when I ﬂailed my hand, 6 icons appeared in a vertical position. I guess they all meant for the different Windows you can open, thank god I didn't have to say those windows out loud anymore just for them to appear. So I scrolled through each one to see if anything changed, in the skills menu there were 4 sections, Combat, Magic, Passive and Support, under support skills state the following:

Carpentry: 0

Cooking: 6

Fishing: 0

Farming:0

Music instruments: 0

Metal forging: 0

Wood gathering: 0

Plant gathering: 0

Mining: 0

Harvesting: 0

Alchemy:0

Crafting:0

Damn, I just realize that there are a lot of skills here, I've got to start crafting items soon. What's harvesting?, how am I suppose to level that? After ward I went to my stats, everything else was still at 5 except for endurance and agility. My endurance was at 15 and my agility was at 12. I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to... Wait was this from the arrow, and the fight with Etrina just a while ago? Ah, I see its a grind type system, So I won't get just points from leveling but I can also increase my attributes by combat without using any points at all.

"Sigh if that's the case it's going to be quite challenging, but after all you don't get by in any MMORPG without hard work. Hmph, this should be interesting" I then realized something

"C-Crap! I forgot I'm supposed to chop these vegetables I gotta do these fast before Christia comes back!" I said and got on the task

(10 minutes later)

"I managed to get everything done on time, sigh" I said.

After chopping everything I managed to increase my cooking skill to 10, turns out the support skill leveling speed slows down with every increase, and chopping ingredients was probably one of the lowest actions required to increase, so I need to do more advance actions to increase it faster. I noticed with each increase I get my cutting became even more reﬁned and efﬁcient! This is probably what happens when you increase any skill, so that means if I level combat skills it's going to get stronger, but only if one uses the same skill over and over, that's fair. I guess I'll work on cooking some other time, hopefully I can start ﬁghting in the near future.

"Hey Zach I'm back, are you ﬁnished?" Christia came in the kitchen with a tray of meat

"Um, yeah" I said. Christia looked at table with the bowls of chopped vegetables.

"Great! I'll do the rest you can take a break" Christia said.

I took of the apron and went back to wearing my coat. She placed the tray on the table and grabbed the knife of the table and started cutting up the meat into ﬁne chunks. After she brought out a large pot and ﬁlled it with water, and soon after placed some herbs and spices together with the meat and the vegetables into the water ﬁlled pot. She then put a lid over the pot and placed into a furnace like and closed the opening and set the timer for 30 minutes with the temperature at 30' degrees. What surprised me was that there was a timer and a temperature meter on that furnace so I got curious and asked.

"Um, Christia how is there a timer on the furnace?" I asked.

"Oh, that's a modiﬁcation" Christia said

"Modiﬁcation?" I said confused.

"You can put modiﬁcations on other items as well, an example would be a sword, will it be one edged or double edged or the hilt will it be made of metal or wooden." Christia said

"Oh, um right" I said.

"I'm surprised you don't know this, you must not get out often" Christia said. They still don't know that I'm not from this world. I shouldn't tell them just yet, but I need to tell them sometime.

"Now that's in the oven, I'll make some side dishes" Christia said and grabbed another tray of ingredients. I stayed and watched as she cooked each dish.

(30 minutes later)

After Christia ﬁnished preparing the other dishes, the furnace alarmed.

"It's ready!" Christia exclaimed. She was going to the furnace, she took out the steaming pot and set it on the table. She was about to go to another table but she slipped.

"Wh-Whoa!" She shouted.

"Christia!" I exclaimed. Luckily I caught her in time with my hand on her back.

"You need to be more careful next time!" I said.

"Um...yeah..." Christia's face then turned red.

"Z-Zach could you...um...you know" She said in a meek voice. Then I realized what she meant, the way I was holding her was like a princess at a ball. At my realization my face turned red as well.

"Oh! Um, I'm sorry!" I quickly let her go, we were standing in front of one another.

"No, no it's ﬁne!" Christi said.

"Christia!, I heard you shout! Is there anything wrong!?" Terra came in.

"Um...no everything is ﬁne!" Christia said

"Why are both your faces red?" Terra said.

"Um...it's really hot in here! I'm going to bring this to the table now!" Christia took the pot out of the kitchen and went to the table. Thank god nobody saw that, everyone might think that I'm a hitting on her or something if they found out about it. I may not know how to talk or understand girls but, at least I know what to do when I am around them.

(When Christia went out of the kitchen)

Christia went to the table to put the pot on the table. Lilith came in...

"Oh Christia dinner's ready?" Lilith asked.

"Um... Yeah I just need to bring the others out..." Christia said. Lilith noticed her red face.

"Hey, why's your face red?" Lilith asked puzzled.

"Um!...That's because!" Christia was about to reply when Zach and Terra came out of the kitchen.

"Did anything happen between you two inside?" Terra asked.

"Of course not!" Lilith also noticed that Zach's face was red. Both Terra and Zach walked past them and went down the hatch.

"Hmmm... I see how it is now" Lilith said with a grin.

"It's not like that!" Christia shouted.

(5 minutes later)

(Back to Zach)

Everyone was sitting on the dining table I looked at everyone and their windows appeared the only new one I saw was Levi's.

Race: Cave Spider Status: Uncontracted

HP: Full

MP: Full

In front of us were the dishes Christia made. Everything on the table looked so appetizing, if I had a hunger bar it probably went down to zero.

"Alright lets eat!" Christia took the lid of the pot and the whole room was filled with the smell of the stew. It was so aromatic that my face was slowly warming up and my stomach grumbling. So even smell is included, so the game now utilizes the five senses, well its to be expected my whole body is here after all. Even if I'm trap here, I am so glad Notch was able to accomplish this.

"Mmm... It smells good." Alice said.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you this time Christia. But it still looks great" Terra said

"Oh, no Zach was there to help me so its fine" Christia said.

"Zach?" Terra said puzzled.

"Zach you can cook?" Alice asked.

"Oh no all I did was..." I said a bit embarrassed, but was cut of by Levi.

"Whatever! can we just eat! I'm starving!" Levi said and got her share. Afterwards everyone else got there share as well. I grabbed a bowl and took a scoop at the stew put it in, I took my spoon and I quickly tasted it. I was delicious this is the best dish I've ever tasted, even if this is a virtual world this taste is just simply amazing. Even if the system doesn't see her as a player she must have a high cooking skill.

"T-This is delicious!" I said with the food in my mouth.

"I know right! If its Christia you can expect nothing less of her cooking." Lilith exclaimed.

"You can't start or end any day with out her food" Alice said.

"Thanks! But Terra's is as just the same level." Christia said.

"Christia we all know that your better than me" Terra said

"Oh come on don't you want Zach to try it, You want to try it right Zach?" Lilith said

"Wait, how did I get involved in this conversation?"

"Just answer" Lilith said

"Sure, why woud'nt I?" Terra's face made a slight blush.

"Then I'll be sure to prepare something" She said in a mellow voice. Levi continued to stay quiet, I guess she doesn't talk a lot. We all continued to eat and chat, it felt nice to be able to talk to other people, I guess I wouldn't have known if I hadn't gone to this world. For the first time I was able to know what it means to be apart of something.

(20 minutes later)

All that can be seen on the table were empty plates. Everyone seemed to have had their fill of Christia's cooking and were chatting. Suddenly I remembered something. Right I've got to ask them about this world.

"Um... everyone can I ask you a question"

"Sure" Lilith said

"What is it?" Alice said

"No, this is really important, it's about this world"

"What?" Christia said.

"Huh?" Terra said

"Shouldn't you know already considering you live in it" Levi said annoyed by my seemingly common sense question.

"I've wanted you to tell you this since yesterday, I was afraid that you wouldn't trust me, but believe me when I say this... I'm not from this world" I said with my hands together.

"Are you from the nether or any of the other dimensions?" Terra asked

"You don't have that fiery look, nor do you glow or have violet particles around you." Christia said

"I'm not from any of the 4 dimensions, I'm from a different world entirely, I was brought to this world by an unknown person so I have very little understanding about this world I'm in now. Its fine if you don't believe what I'm saying I just need to know about this new world I'm in now" Everyone then turned silent, just as I thought they wouldn't believe me.

"N-No I believe Big Brother!" Terra said.

"Just a while ago in the village, you asked about the currency of Infinitum, which was something that was created thousands of years ago" Terra said

"I too also believe you" Christia said

"You also asked about what modifications are which is something that was discovered for years even in ancient times" Christia said

"You immediately trusted us from the start, which means that you have no idea what the history of what humans and mobs have done to each other to become enemies or anything about this world" Levi said

"Levi..." I said. This is the first time she stood up for me, but...

"That or you just lived under a rock for your entire life." Levi quickly said.

"Hey!" I rebuked. Well that kindness was short lived.

"All three of these were major results of thousands and thousands of years of history, if you didn't know any of these then that proves that your not from this world at all" Alice said

"So you all believe me?" I asked.

"Of course we do" Alice said

"Yup" Lilith said.

"Only an idiot would not know of these, of course I have to believe you" Levi said

"Y-Yes" Terra said

"Duh" Christia said

"Thank you all for believing me." I said with a relieving smile.

"Now where should we start, Hmm..." Alice said scratching her head

"Should we start with history or should we start with the relations of humans and mobs" Alice said

"No we should start with the races" Lilith said

"This is going to be hard I've never thought someone one before" Lilith said

"Neither have any of us" Christia said

"Ah!" Terra said

"Terra, did you remember something?" Christia asked

"How about we start with that story" Terra said

"Story?" We all said confused.

"You know the one that we were told of as kids" Terra said

"Oh, that story" Lilith said

"I remember now" Christia said.

"Sure lets start with that" Alice said

"Um... what's this story you guys are talking about?" I asked.

"Its the story of creation" Alice said

"The story of creation?" Minecraft never exactly had a story of creation or any story at all, just survive and beat the ender dragon and that's it you win, game over, knowing that Minecraft has an actual story piqued my interest.

"May I start?" Alice asked.

"Please do" I said.

"At ﬁrst there was nothingness, then out of the emptiness 2 white lights came about. Those lights were known as the two Gods beings Admin and Eve, and with them brought unimaginable power. The 2 of them decided to build the world as they saw ﬁt. They created the 4 dimensions, Inﬁnitum, The Nether Abyss, The Aether and ﬁnally Terminus. With each dimension they created they brought forth life. Mobs and Humans were brought up to their worlds, and all prospered with unlimited potential. However with prosperity came creation and destruction. Generations past and many wars have broke out between the two races and even amongst themselves, their world broken, screaming for salvation and alas their cries have been answered. As a last resort to save the world Admin divided Eve into two, and brought 2 supreme being to this world, the builder and the destroyer. The two of them balanced the world and brought peace to the 4 dimensions. But that peace never remained untouched, eventually more wars erupted with their presence the two beings then turned against each other which led to the Great War. Admin only observed to see the outcome and did nothing to help either of the sides, and soon chaos reined through the four dimensions. There are no records of how long the war lasted or when it ended, but the outcome was devastating. At the war's ﬁnal moments, the two beings stood a top a mountain ﬁghting to their last breath.

"So...who won?" I asked.

"The destroyer did" Alice said

End of Chapter 9

Next Chapter: Lore lessons


	10. Update 10: Creeper Origins

Chapter 10: The story of Freedom.

"The destroyer did? Then that means evil won?"

"He wasn't good nor evil and so was the builder, they had the right to choose between the two, for instance if the builder had won too much progress and construction could have lead to civil wars for resources and power within and outside the races. Too much of anything isn't always good" Alice said

"Oh, so what happened?" I asked with a curious expression

"Without the builder there would not have been anyone strong enough to face the destroyer, Admin had then decided to seal the destroyer, but it came with a cost with the destroyer he sealed himself as well. With out any gods or supreme beings he left the world's inhabitants to decide their fate." Alice said

"So there's no happy ending?" I asked. Alice shook her head.

"Not originally, but there have been many cults who worship the gods and supreme beings, with that arose the many rumors about their faith, the most popular being what was called the second prophecy created by the society known as the Mundus Aedificarem. It states that the soul of Eve still remains in this world today and will further decide the next chosen supreme beings and with it a great evil shall rise to destroy this world and everything in it." Alice said.

The soul of Eve? Was she the one who has been appearing in my dreams, and what she meant by deciding this worlds fate, all related to this?

"Zach are you alright you seem to be in a trance?" Lilith asked

"What? No I'm ﬁne" I said

"And that's the end of the story, now to mob cities and tribes." Alice said

"Tribes?" I said.

"I forgot to mention, when Admin had sealed the destroyer, that seal emitted a great amount of magic which turned the souls of the fallen who have lost their lives during the war and turned them into mobs which have never before walked on this world, unlike the mobs that existed before them these mobs were unorganized, uncivilized, blood thirsty and would attack anything not of their own kind, after the war the world was in ashes, tainted by the hands of everything that had built it and these mobs possessing the same souls, we gave them the name "The corrupted". The strange thing about the corrupted is that no matter how many times you kill them, they keep returning." Alice said.

"Returning, huh?" She must mean the mobs like the goblins, well it's only natural since any mob in any RPG would attack any player and or NPC's regardless who they are. Returning? Ah that must be respawn, I always thought respawning was apart of the system, but here it's explained. This worlds just keeps getting better and better.

"Now, we go to mob cities" Alice said.

"Each mob race except the corrupted in Inﬁnitum has their own capital city, surrounding the main capital are other villages as well as towns there are also many scattered mob towns even if they aren't near the capital and out of the race territory all of these cities form the mob empire known as the Blood Alliance, but there are a few exceptions within the cities. One of them is the creeper city, unlike the others they're not independent because they are a faction of the skeletons. We have no information regarding the Aether, The Nether Abyss or the End" Alice said.

"Why aren't they independent like the other races?" I said. Christia suddenly faced down with a Grimm face.

"Christia are you alright?" I asked.

"Um, yeah just a bit tired" Christia gave of a forced smile, but the depressing atmosphere around her didn't change.

"Did... I say something wrong?" I asked.

"N-No! It's just that..." Christia reacted and became silent.

"The reason why she's acting like that is because there's a history concerning the creepers and the skeletons." Alice said.

"The origins of creepers were through skeletons, after all the races were born many of them showed signs or rapid advancement, ﬁrst were the endermen and next were the humans and the skeletons. They were the ones who had the most wars with the humans, and were on the losing end. So they decided to create a new type of mob, a mob that could inﬁltrate and sneak into enemy lines without being suspected by anyone, with sulfur and blood ﬂowing through their veins they succeeded creating the perfect living bomb and as their purpose they gave them the name Creepers. With this new mob they were able to turn the tide in their wars and ended with a stalemate. After the wars have ceased many creepers remained alive and unused, they created a city for them to live, but it was more like a prison for their test subjects. That was the way they were treated for generations, until 50 years after the creepers decided to revolt, many creepers died that day, those who escaped managed spread that's why the creeper population has roamed across this world and continue to live on up to this day, though it was because of this that the skeletons have tightened their security around the creeper city. Alice said

"I see, so they were treated as disposable test subjects, how despicable!" Christia continued to stay silent without a word.

"There was actually a second revolt that occurred, this one was 5 years ago... And one me and Christia were apart of" Alice said

"A second?" Another one 5 years ago this quite recent, is this why Christia is keeping silent.

"But, unless I get Christia's consent I can't tell you anything" Alice said

"Oh, if that's the case then I guess it's alright if you do-..."

"No, it's ﬁne..." Christia said.

"Christia, are sure you might be reminded of your memories of that time?" Alice said.

"Y-Yes, I am ﬁne please continue" Christia said with her head tilted. Alice took a deep breath.

"Alright, this is the story of how me and Christia met, I was 14 years old when I ﬁrst met Christia..." Alice said.

(Flashback of Alice 5 years ago) (NOTE: All first person perspectives are by Alice not Zach)

Alice was looking out my house's balcony when my friends arrived...

"Creeper city?" Alice asked

"Yeah, there's a whole city full of them!" A boy said

"Eh? I was told that our race created them." A girl said

"I heard they can explode whenever they wanted, which helped us with our wars against the humans." Another boy said.

"Hah! In the end their all just experiments and test subjects made by us, nothing special!" Anther boy said.

"Alice your not coming with us?" A girl asked.

"I'll catch up with you later" Alice said.

All of her friends walked away, Alice stayed continuing to look out her balcony.

"Creepers, huh? I wonder what it's like in their city." Alice continued to ponder, what creepers are and soon became curious about them. She started going to the library collecting books on the history of creepers and how they were created, this piqued her interest all the more.

"So they really were created by skeletons..." Alice said while reading a book.

"Even after the wars we still continue to create them... Oh it ends here?" Alice said lookin at the torn pages of her book.

"The pages seemed to be ripped out, that makes me even more curious now" Alice said

The next day she prepared her supplies to go to the creeper city. She ventured towards the creeper city, it took her at least an hour to travel by horse. She was expecting to see something similar to the skeleton city, towers, a clear sky, and happiness all around, what she found was the the total opposite. When she arrived I sighted a reinforced wall made of stone and iron, skeletons guards fully equipped with weapons patrolling each side of the wall. It looked more  
like a prison than a city. It didn't seem she was going to get in through the front just from the look of the guards, she instead found a hole big enough for her to ﬁt through and ventured forth into the prison like city. I creeped around through the buildings and alleyways for her not to be seen by anyone. On the streets of the city there were dozens of creepers lining up to get there share of food and water served by the guards. Some of them were in chains, others were lying on the ground dead. This was not the type of image she had thought of the city. While she was walking through the alley ways I came across two people one was a guard the other was a creeper girl. This creeper was coated with clothes in patches that were stitched on. She had pink hair, and lovely green eyes with an annoyed expression looking towards the guard in front of her.

"Thief! Where the portion of food you stole from us!" The guard said

"I told you I didn't steal anything from you" She said

"You think I would just believe that?!" The guard suddenly slapped her.

"Ah!" The creeper fell to the ground.

"Ungrateful trash!, we let you live and this is how you repay us! Your just an experiment things like you should have been left to die ages ago!" The guard shouted furiously.

"Heh" she laughed and made a smirked towards the guard.

"What was that?!" The guard shouted.

"It's funny because you realize the trash your talking to is creeper right? If I recall you made us to explode anytime we want, I can easily kill myself and take you down with me any second I want." Her eyes were ﬁlled with bloodlust and killing intent giving the message"I can easily kill you right now don't you know?" The guard suddenly realized his mistake and trembled, he slowly took a few steps back.

"Oh now you understand, now be afraid and run along" she said and the guard did just that and quickly ran as fast as possible. She then turned to the corner where Alice was hiding behind. Alice quickly hid.

"I know your there, so just come out already." She said and Alice did as she was told.

"Y-Your not going to" Alice stood shuddering.

"So your a skeleton and No, I'm not going to blow up. What I said to the guard was just a bluff anyway, can't believed it actually worked though! hahahaha!" She laughed.

"A bluff?" Alice asked still frightened.

"Oh c'mon you really think I would blow myself up for a few scraps of food?" She said.

"Which reminds me..." She said and went into the corner of the alley and pulled up a lid of a bucket, in it were 3 whole loaves of bread.

"So you did steal it!" Alice exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down! Someone might hear you!" She said immediately.

"Sorry! sorry!" Alice said waving her hands.

"So what's your name?" She asked. Alice's expression changed at her words.

"I don't think I should casually give my name to a stranger just like that." Alice said

"Smart, guess your not just a pretty face " She smirked.

"Alright let me ask you something, why'd you steal the food?" Alice asked

"Why should I tell you a person I know nothing of the reasons of my theft" She said.

"Sharp, Not too gullible for a kid" Alice said. Both Alice and the girl were staring at each other, both not backing of.

"Hmph, tell ya what, how about we make a trade? You tell me who you are and I'll do the same" She said

"How can I trust your words" Alice asked

"Right back at you" She said

"Fine, I'll comply" Alice said

"Good but, let's go somewhere more private. C'mon I know a place" She said

"Again, how can I trust you?" Alice said

"You can't, but as of now we'll both be in danger if someone see's you together with me after what I just did" She said. I mean its not like I wasn't in danger in the first place, but she's right.

"I guess your right" Alice said

"Now C'mon!" I then followed the strange girl to an abandoned building, both of them went to the top most ﬂoor to be safe nobody see's them. Once they reached the top, we began staring in front of each other. Both silent until...

"Alright then I'll start" Alice said

"My name is Alice Scelestia, I'm a 15 year old skeleton. I came to this city because I was curious of creepers with nobody else and have no connections to anyone in the city, nothing more." Alice said

"You were curious, Alice?" She asked

"My friend told me about your race and it piqued my interest so I decided to read about it but all the information regarding creepers are lacking in the city so why not go to the source?" Alice said. The girl's eyes narrowed at Alice.

"Its only natural they would be lacking any information about us to keep people like you out of this hell" She said.

"Hm, There aren't a lot of people like you, who would care about our race especially skeletons for that matter" She said. Alice was confused of what she said to her.

"My name is Christia I've been a creeper living in this city for about 12 years" She said

"That's it?" Alice asked curiously

"That's all there is to it" Christia said

"Alright then let me ask again why'd you steal the food?" Alice asked

"Let's just say it's for some people I know" Christia said. I felt a small sense of distrust and mystery behind her words, but for the sake of my curiosity I didn't want her to lose trust in me by prying more info out of her. I want to ask her...

"So Christia" Alice said

"Yeah?" Christia said

"What you we're saying that there aren't a lot of people who would care about your race?" Alice said

"It's unusual you wouldn't know, but you do know our history right? About us being made by skeletons and used for war which was our only purpose right" Christia said

"Yes, what I studied back home wasn't that much though" Alice responded

"Do you still remember what the guard said just a bit ago?" Christia said. Alice's eyes widened at her thought.

"You mean... No that can't be" Alice said astonished.

"Yeah that's how they think of us, test subjects, experiments, trash, disposable whatever you want to call it to them were inferior, as the guard said we could all have been killed, but they let us live for the sake of "research" " Christia said

"That's awful! I never thought that my race would do such a thing" Alice said, Christia was left there staring at her, until they heard the sound of grumbling. Christia's face flushed.

"Oh I-I'm sorry! That's embarrassing, I must be hungry" Christia said

"No it's ﬁne, I'm actually getting quite hungry as well" Alice said

"Well I know it's not much, but I guess I can give you some of the food I st-" Christia said

"No! no it's ﬁne, you said you needed that for some people, I don't want to trouble you by asking food from you, plus I've got something better!" Alice said. She then searched through the rummage in her bag and brought out a cloth bag. Inside it was a loaf of golden brown bread and 2 apples. Alice split the bread in two.

"Here" Alice gave it to her with the apple.

"This is looks like some high quality bread! But what's this other thing you gave to me?" Christia said

"Take a bite out of it ﬁrst" Alice said.

Christia was looking at the fruit with a puzzled face and having second thoughts of biting it, but eventually she did just that. Her eyes widened at the sweet taste of the apple.

"Mm!" Christia said as she was chewing and swallowed.

"What is this!? It tastes amazing!" Christia said with stars in her eyes

"It's an apple." Alice said

"An Apple?" Christia said puzzled

"Yeah it's a fruit" Alice said

"Fruit?! I've heard of that! That's something that grows on trees on the outside right?!"Christia said surprised

"Yeah... Have you never been outside this city?" Alice asked

"Outside, huh... No, we creepers have been conﬁned in these walls ever since we were born, most of us want to see what's on the outside but, due to our status in the skeleton society we remain here." Christia said. Christia's expression changed.

"But even so there will come a day where we creepers will stand on equal ground with our creators and escape the conﬁnement of this prison like city, and maybe then we can see what's outside." Christia said as if giving a speech.

"Christia..." Alice said speechless

"Wait why am I telling you this?" Christia said

"I think it's wonderful, but until that day comes how about I tell you what's on the outside" Alice said

"Really!?" Christia said with sparkles in her eyes.

"Sure, did you know there's actually a place covered with snow and ice?" Alice said

"Snow? What's that?" Christia asked

"I guess you have a lot of learning to do" Alice said with a palm on her face.

(Hours later)

"It's almost sundown I think I should go back, before my parents start to worry" Alice said

"You'll come back right, Alice?" Christia said

"Don't worry I will, I'll be sure to bring some souvenirs along with me" I went of that day, reﬂecting on what I just discovered and I felt ashamed that my race would do such a thing. Due to that I continued to visit Christia at least once every week for about 3 months bringing something different with me every time. One day...

"You know you really are blessed" Christia stared down at her chest.

"Truly blessed indeed..." Christia said. Alice's face blushed.

"WHERE ARE YOU LOOKING!?" Alice exclaimed covering her chest.

"Just kidding." Christia smiled.

"No, seriously though. To be a skeleton, you get to live a normal life, be treated equally by everyone, not discriminated and actually live..." There was a long pause after what Christia said.

"You still remember what I said that we can explode anytime we want to, but that's not actually true. We can if we wanted to but our body isn't wired to our minds fully so we can explode anytime without us activating it." Christia said depressed.

"What?! Then...!" Alice said

"But there are symptoms to tell, ﬁrst is when we would start to feel extremely warm at the temperature where it can burn skin when in contact, second is when we start to faint many times, and third is when we start coughing out blood mixed with sulfur, but even though I know that I will die some day I'll still having hope for a day to leave this place" Christia said. Alice paused for a few seconds before speaking again.

"Christia, your wrong having hope is already a blessing which not everyone has" Alice said

"And, Your wrong you know about me being blessed for being a skeleton" Alice said

"In the skeleton city most people are cowards, afraid to step out of their shell and make a difference what's worse are the leaders who tied them down with their rules, they give of kind smiles, but that's only to mask the malice they have done, after that meeting with you that day I felt angry, ashamed that I was born to a race with no shame for their actions. But even I have my own goals, someday I'm going to take the crown and send destroy this corrupt system. Then I'll free everyone in this city" Alice said. Christia stayed silent without words.

"Alice..." Christia said staring at her.

"But as of now I can't, but I still have some goals I can do, I have to at the very least get you out of here" Alice said

"Alice, Thank you" Christia said and smiled at her

"Now that I think about it, I actually can" Alice said

"WHAT! HOW!" Christia suddenly lunged at Alice said

"Hey calm down" Alice said holding onto Christia's shoulders.

" I actually came in through a hole in the wall" Alice said casually

"A hole! Why didn't you tell me!" Christia said

"You never asked how I got in here." Alice said

"Show me!" Christia said

Christia followed Alice to the exact hole where she had entered the city for the last two months.

"Wow! there really is a hole, never thought the skeletons would miss this!"Christia said

"Hrmm, then I guess we'll have to adjust our plans from now on."Christia said

"Plans? " Alice said puzzled.

"Alice come with me, I have something I want to show you"Christia said

"O-Okay" Alice said

Alice followed Christia through the alleyways and cracks so that they wont be seen or followed. Until they stopped at a wall with a button on it, Christia pressed the button and a doorway opened, Alice was confused as to why she's here.

"Where are we?"Alice said

"You'll see"Christia said

They both went inside and went to the second floor where there were about 10 people huddled up together discussing while another 10-30 were laying on the ground, sitting down or moving boxes of supplies. One of them noticed Christia...

"Christia! Your... Home" Soon after others noticed as well, and were staring at Alice.

"Christia... Who is that behind you?" One of them said.

"Her, name's Alice she's a skeleton."Christia said casually

"A Skeleton!" They all reacted.

"Are you an IDIOT!" A woman said

"Do you want to get us all KILLED!" A man said

"Silence!" A man said, and everyone became tranquil.

"Christia I know you have done some outrageous actions, but this is the most ridiculous one yet! What is your reason for bringing an enemy here?!" The man at the center said.

"Sorry John but this time, this is something serious" All of them stayed silent.

"She knows away out of the city!"Christia said

"A way out?" A man said.

"She's probably lying, I mean how can we trust her?" The man said

"I've been meeting with her for the past 2 months I know Alice well enough that she want to help us escape."Christia said

"Two months!? You dared not tell me!?" The man at the center of the group said

"If I told you, you would have stopped me otherwise"Christia said

"Even so how do you know if there is a hole?" A person said.

"I've seen it myself! Its south west from here, If possible I bet we can all escape in the following week"Christia said

"Escape?" A voice in the crowd said

"We can finally escape?" Another voice said

"How can you be sure she isn't a spy sent here to kill us!?" The same man said

"I am no spy! I came here with no connections, not a single skeleton knows that I'm here!" Alice said

"Puh-lease would you honestly think we would believe that nonsense coming from scum like you?!" The same man said

"SHUT UP SEAN! You have no right to speak like that in front of Alice!" Christia shouted

"SILENCE! BOTH OF YOU!" The man in the center shouted. The room became silent.

"Sean, Christia may do some ridiculous things, but she is no liar!" the man at the center said

"Yes, Sir. My apologies." Sean said

"Christia, Calm down Sean is not your enemy!" the man at the center said

"Y-Yes" Christia said. Alice's face widened as this was the first time the mischievous girl she knows would listen to anybody. In her mind she knew whoever this person is it must be important even for Christia to respect him.

"Now I'll go see if what Alice says is true, then we decide our next move" The man said and stood up

"Christia, Alice lead the way" He said

"Yes" They both said.

All 3 of them walked out of the room together...

(1 hour and 30 minutes later)

"That little prick! Just because he's older than me doesn't mean he can talk about my friends like that!" Christia shouted.

Me and the man beside me were silent as Christia was shouting her angers out. The man walking beside me looked to be an old man in his mid 50's

"Um Sir... Who was that man that made Christia angry" Alice asked. The man looked towards her with narrow eyes. A chill then ran down Alice's spine.

"O-Oh I-I'm s-sorry I didn't introduce myself!"Alice said

"My name is Alice Scelestia, I've been a friend of Christia for 2 months now. I am truly sorry if she did not inform you about our relationship!" Alice bowed.

"Haha!" The old man chuckled at the sight of Alice's behavior.

"Uuuh" Alice said puzzled.

"I see for you to bow to even us despite knowing our races you truly are a humble person." He said

"You don't need to be to formal, I'm not a skeleton after all, My name is John Kanter, I'm the leader of the Creeper revolt in this city" He said

"You can call me by John" He said

"The Creeper revolt? You mean that movement that has been harassing the skeletons here in the creeper city, right?" Alice said. John thought that upon hearing she would be frightened or at the very least shocked, but Alice was composed.

"Yes, I thought you would be more surprised, but actually quite composed upon hearing" John said.

"It's because I know that you are someone who Christia respects and trust" Alice said

"Trust is one thing, but Respect huh? Everyone does except for her" John said

"Haha... Well coming from her it is to be expected"Alice said

"I'm sorry if she didn't tell you about me" Alice said

"It's alright, I know Christia she can be a bit reckless, but she's a good girl" John said

"Hey! What are you guys talking about?" Christia said

"Oh, I was just introducing my self in front of your leader, I didn't know you were apart of the Creeper revolt, Why didn't you tell me? I could have told you earlier about the hole if you did."Alice said

"I didn't fully trust you yet, that time, but now I do so everything is good now" Christia said

"Our groups goal was to supposedly take over this city from the reign of the skeletons, but after a whole 10 months..." John said

"We of course can't because we don't have the resources or anything to be able to match them. So we decided to ﬁnd a way to escape instead." Christia said

"Ah, that makes sense" Alice said

"So tell me what have you two been doing together for the past two months, I'm interested to know" John said

"Well I..."Alice said

"Alice would tell me about what's on the outside, she always brings food and nice things to keep us busy, there's so many things outside! Did you know that there's something called snow that fall when it's really really cold! I want to see it when I get out of here!"Christia said

"The outside huh... I see you found a good friend Christia, perhaps you can enlighten me as well when this is all over" John said

"I would gladly, but maybe I don't have to. We are here" Alice pointed towards the hole in the wall. Johns eyes grew wider with astonishment.

"So...this is it ?" John said

"Yes"Alice said

"Thank the Gods have shined upon us!" John said

"We shall return to the base and report this, Christia we shall pull through with your plan and escape next week" John said

"Thank you!" Christia said. Christia then turned back at Alice with tears in her eyes.

"Alice we can escape! We can ﬁnally escape! Thank you!" Christia exclaimed and quickly hugged Alice.

"I told you I would didn't I?" Alice said

Alice felt something ominous. She turned to the building behind them, but there was nothing.

"Alice, something wrong?"Christia said

"N-no of course not"Alice said

"Then let's head back!"Christia said

"Was I imagining that?" Alice said to her self.

As soon as they got back to John's base, John announced to everyone the conﬁrmation of the hole and their escape the following week. Everyone rejoiced and had a feast that day, I was about to pack up and leave to go home.

"Hey, Alice your leaving already?"Christia said

"Well, my parents will get worried if I'm not home yet any longer"Alice said

"Oh, Okay you'll be back within the week right?" Christia said worriedly.

"Of course! I'm escaping with you guys too you know!" Alice said.

"I already told John and he approved."Alice said

"What?! What about your life! If you escape with us you'll be considered a renegade in the kingdom!"Christia said

"Pfft! So what? The kingdom was boring in the ﬁrst place, even we skeletons were bound to our own chains in the kingdom, I think it's about time that I too ﬁnd out what lies beyond the kingdom"Alice said

"Then what about..."Christia said

"Don't get me wrong I'm coming back for the throne and soon after free this city"Alice said

"Hmph!" Christia smiled.

"When that happens I'm coming back with you, That's a promise!"Christia said

"It's a promise!" Alice then went home and came back 2 days later.

"Alice your back! I have some friends I want you to meet" Alice followed Christia to a room and found 4 people standing in the middle. 2 boys and 2 girls.

"Hey guys this is her! Alice these are my friends."Christia said

They all were wearing ragged clothes with patches and had almost the same height as Christia. One of the boys in glasses and had brownish straight hair. The other boy had messy black hair with a scar on his cheek with cold eyes. One of the girls had light green hair in a braid like hairstyle and the other had blue hair with it flowing down and all of them had kind eyes looking right at me.

"Its nice to meet you Alice, We have been hearing some good stuff about you from Christia" said the girl with green hair.

"I'm Kanaria" said the girl with green hair

"I'm Hana" said the girl with blue hair

"I'm Carl" said the boy with glasses. The boy with black hair did not say a word and looked away in disgust.

"The Quiet guy over there, yeah his name is Zed" Carl said. He continued to stay quiet and avoided their gazes at him.

"Doesn't seem to be much of a talker is he?" Alice said.

"I heard from Christia that you told her a bunch of stuff from the outside."

"Um, yeah."Alice said

"So um..." Kanaria said with a few seconds of pause in between her response.

"Could you please tell us as well!? " Kanaria said

"Eh?"Alice said with surprise

"Were so excited to meet you!" Hana said. Alice's face turned to a slight blush.

"Yeah! There's something called the ocean right?!"Carl said

"Did you bring anything? Christia always tells us about the stuff you bring" Kanaria said. Each of them had expectant eyes full of stars with excitement. Soon Alice's blushed face turned back to normal and she smiled.

"Alright everyone, gather around, I'll tell you a whole bunch of things"

"Tch! I'm leaving" Zed flicked his tongue in disgust.

"Aw! c'mon stay and join us Zed!" Kanaria said

"Don't wanna" he soon left the room.

"Uh! He is such a downer!" Carl said

"Its alright everyone, I'll go after him" Christia said.

"Alice I'll be back" Christia said and ran out the room to chase after him.

"C'mon Alice tell us what's on the outside?"

"Okay, Okay..."Alice said

Alice continued to go there almost everyday sharing what was on the outside to the children and the other creepers until the day they were going to escape.

(Back to Zach POV) point of view

"Did you escape?" I asked.

Alice's face then gave of a grave expression as well as Christia's. The atmosphere around them went dark.

"Me and Christia, We escaped"Alice said

"Everyone else?" Alice then shook her head.

"They died" Alice said.


	11. Update 11: Past Vows and regrets

Chapter 11 Past Vows and Regrets

"I'm going to my room"Christia said immediately.

"C-Christia! I'm sorry I ask-" Christia lifted her hand. I stopped.

"N-No its alright, I'm just tired is all..." Christia said with her back facing us.

"Chri- " Alice then gripped my shoulder and stared at me with a face that said "Let her be". So I stopped. She then went towards the hatch and went down. We both sat back on our seats.

"Leave her be for now, she couldn't take what I'm about say next" Alice said

"So, what happened?" I asked. Alice's eyes narrowed before she began to speak.

"In the one week before our escape, we gathered as many creepers as we can for as many of them to escape. We made the messages secret I don't know how it got out, but it did, On that night..." Alice said.

(Back to Alice's Flashback story)

"Alice!" John called out.

"Yes John!" Alice replied.

"I just want to say thank you for everything you have done up until this point" John approached her and held Alice by her shoulders.

"No problem" Alice said smiling at John.

"Everyone, Every creeper that is here today with us, all of them their eyes filled with happiness and rejoice, and it was all because of the actions of one skeleton, You."John said pointing to her.

"You, Flatter me to much John" Alice said

"Perhaps there is hope for both our kinds to one day come to an understanding"John said

"There's always hope John, always, and there will be much more when I return to the kingdom. One day..." Alice said gazing at the horizon.

"Hahaha!, I see now why you were able to be friends with us so easily." John laughed

"Alice!, You were over here talking with John huh?" Christia said. She then looked into the crowd.

Everyone of them men and women of all ages were there at the hideout. Most of them were skeptical of this meeting and others were confused, but in their eyes there was a small light of hope within them and that was all that mattered at that moment.

"It really is a pleasant sight to see."Christia said looking over the crowd.

"It truly is, and now we can all escape this hell" John then went to the center stage, in front of the crowd.

"Everyone! My name is John Kanter, I am the leader of the group known as the creeper revolt. for the past 6 months we have been fighting the skeleton rule on our city and we have not made any progress at all, so instead we tried to find ways in order to escape, but just recently my sources have told me that there is a hole in the wall of the city which we can all escape!" John shouted

"We can escape?" A voice in t he crowd said

"Is he for real?" Another voice said

"It must be a lie, is it?" Another voice said

"I know all of you have doubt in my words, but what I say here is but the truth. So I call you here all today to REJOICE! the wait is Finally over! It is time we escape and find new life outside the confinements of this prison, We shall no longer be bound to the shackles held by the slave workers and scientists, TONIGHT WE SHALL RECEIVE OUR FREEDOM!" John shouted.

"WOOOOOH! YEEEEAAAAAH!" The crowd shouted.

"JOHN! JOHN! JOHN! JOHN!" All Chanted. Alice and Christia were in a room behind the stage. The sounds of the crowd's cheers to John's speech were piercing through the walls even they could here their enthusiasm.

"He can give one hell of a speech, but he didn't mention you though" Christia said.

"If he did no would believe him if he got the info from a skeleton." Alice said.

"SIGH, Even so you should still receive some recognition" Christia then looked outside the window.

"We've gone a long way..."Alice said

"From the day we met..." Christia said

"And now were here..." Christia said

"Alice thanks for everything if it weren't for me meeting you we could have known about that hole" Christia said.

"Thank you for telling me about your race, if it weren't for you I wouldn't have known what my kingdom is hiding" Alice said.

"Hey! I'm supposed to be the one thanking you not the other way around!" Christia exclaimed.

"Fufufu" Alice giggled.

"I hope we can happily continue to live like this from now on" Alice said.

"Same here" Christia said. The atmosphere around them was interrupted by a loud scream.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" A loud scream was suddenly heard.

"What was that!?" Christia reacted. Even more came.

"It came from outside." Alice said. Both of them ran out the room. The screams grew louder every step they approached. Then suddenly 20 men in armor with a bone sigil stormed in.

"KILL ALL CREEPERS IN THE VICINITY!" One of the soldiers shouted. As soon as hearing the shout from their commander the troop of skeletons spread out through out the hideout.

"NO! PLEASE! ARRGH!" A person screamed as he was stabbed in the chest.

"AHHH!" A person screamed wounded on the ground.

"There going to kill us RUN!" A person shouted and the whole place was in panic. Everyone began to run around trying to escape the skeletons, but it only made it easier to pick them off one by one.

Alice instantly knew which race owned that sigil, the skeletons. The creepers ran and the skeletons were Mercilessly killing any creeper in their way.

"How did they find this place!" Christia exclaimed.

"Why did they have to appear now of all times c'mon!" Alice said.

"EVERYONE FIGHT! WE SHALL RECIEVE FREEDOM TONIGHT!" John shouted.

"CHARGE!" John said. Creepers came running holding swords and wearing light armor and were fighting the skeletons.

"RAAAAAAHHHH" The creepers gave their strongest and loudest war cry and charged towards the skeletons. The sounds of metal clashing and the screams of creepers soon filled the base. John then turned to Alice and Christia.

"ALICE, CHRISTIA! Were going, They'll hold them of lets go NOW! TAKE AS MUCH WITH YOU!" John shouted.

"GOT IT!" Christia said.

"Kanaria!, Zed!, Karl!, Hana! c'mon were leaving!" Christia shouted and they came running.

"EVERYONE C'MON WERE GOING TO ESCAPE! FOLLOW US! RUN!" Everyone then ran along with our group, the guards were still there, slowly picking them of one by one. We ran through the same alleyways to get to the hole, but we were ambushed there as well. There were skeletons wielding swords and bows ready and waiting.

"OH NO!, we wont get through!" Alice said. John just beside them then nodded at his men. Their expressions changed and soon began to dash even faster.

"Everyone PLAN B!" John shouted. Creepers then ran ahead of us and tackled the guards and seconds later started to glow and... exploded, more and more creepers exploded along with the screams of everyone around us, despite those circumstances we kept running towards the hole.

"Almost there! KEEP RUNNING!" A guard suddenly appeared and made a cut on Christia arm, she was stunned and began stagger.

"It's you again... the one who scared me off thinking that it could kill me..." The soldier said. Christia then knew who this was, it was the guard who cornered her 3 months ago. Christia holding her arm where the cut was made.

"Not so high and mighty now, what was you said when I first met you? That you could kill me?" The guard sneered. Christia looked at him with disgust.

"Where's that face you made? The others they laughed at me for being a coward...the humiliation I suffered!" He had his hand over his face with his sword in the other.

"But that doesn't matter anymore, I'll take it all back by killing you!" The guard then came running mindlessly towards Christia and make another slash. Christia wasn't fast enough to dodge...

"I can't dodge it. I guess this it..." Christia mumbled.

"DIE TRASH!" The guard shouted. Christia was about to embrace fate but, before the blade made contact. Alice took her knife and sliced his neck.

"What..." The guard said out of shock as he slowly fell to the ground. His dead eyes looking towards Christia, Christia turned away.

"Christia are you alright!" Alice said

"Yeah... I'm fine." Christia said with her hand covering her bleeding arm. Alice took notice and began to worry.

"Your arm! Here let me help-" Alice said and was about to reach towards Christia.

"I'm fine! Keep going!" Alice looked back. The skeletons were still chasing us and even more explosions can be heard just ahead of the path.

"Tch! We got to go!" We continued to run down the dark alleys and tight cracks towards the hole along with about 10 to 15 other creepers. Arrows flew by from behind hitting others rather than us.

"Agh!" The man cried.

"GAK!" And another cried.

"Keep moving!" John shouted. More and more of the remaining survivors were shot and killed dropping like flies. The only ones left were Alice, Christia, her friends, John along with 3 of his men. The skeletons were advancing and would have soon caught up in a matter of minutes. When we turned a corner...

"You 3 come with me!" John said.

"GO! We'll hold them of!" John said.

"John! NO!" Christia cried.

"If I don't, no one can escape even if its just you lot who does!" John exclaimed.

"NO! I-" Christia said. John grinded his teeth.

"JUST GO YOU IDIOT!" John shouted. Christia was stunned and gave a shocked expression seconds after her shocked expression changed to serious.

"Thank you for everything John!"Christia said and they all ran.

"John!" Alice called. John looked back and smiled.

"FOR FREEDOM!" John shouted along with his 3 men.

We didn't look back I could only hear more explosions after. It was able to disorient and confuse the crowd of soldiers to stop chasing us for some time, we took John's sacrifice and made haste towards our exit. They soon saw the crumbling wall and within it was the hole.

"C'mon everyone we're almost there!" Christia shouted. All of their expressions filled with relief and delight to see the freedom they have all longed for. Once they reached south west wall to where the hole was only Alice, Christia, and her friends who made it. Alice and Christia went through the hole but, the others didn't.

"Everyone! Come on go through!" Christia exclaimed, but they stayed silent.

"We're sorry Christia, I know you wanted us to escape with you and we wanted as well, but even if its only you its still worth it." Kanaria said.

"What are you saying?" Christia asked. She then realized what Kanaria meant. Her eyes widened and had a grief expression on her face.

"Nononono NO! DONT YOU DARE! DONT YOU DARE DIE! PLEASE NOT NOW!" Christia shouted.

"Search for them they couldn't have gone far!" One of the soldiers shouted from behind.

"Christia if we don't you cant escape, remember us well alright?" Kanaria said.

"You were always the one who had the most purpose of escaping after all." Carl said with his hand over his nape.

"Don't worry..." Zed said.

"You guys... " Christia said and paused.

"NO! ITS NOT FAIR!" Christia shouted.

"Please... You don't have to do this..." Christia pleaded.

"She's right you could escape with us and have a chance of living a normal life." Alice said.

"You gave us hope Alice, hope that there was something more behind these walls and if we all can't escape then at least one of us has to" Carl said.

"And we can-" Christia said.

"Even if we do we wont get far before were caught" Hana said.

"We have regrets, but we would only have more if we don't let you escape." Kanaria said.

"We'll always be with you" Hana said with a smile.

"Everyone..." Christia's turned her head face down.

"I'll always remember you as my friends for as long as I live on this world." Christia said. Christia had a grief expression on her face and started crying. As her tears fell so did the rain.

"Thank you" They said and smiled

"Alice..." Zed said.

"What is it" Alice said.

"Take care of Christia for us. She can get into some serious trouble every once in a while" Zed said and smiled.

"I'll do my best." Alice said.

"Sniff, Sniff..." Christia was crying and sniffling. Alice placed her hand over Christia's shoulder. The sounds of footsteps drew near.

"We have to go..." Alice said. Christia took one last look at the friends in front of her then stood up from the ground.

"Goodbye everyone, we'll take back this city for all of us." Christia said and both of them ran from the wall and into the dark forest.

(Back to Zach's POV)

"We then ran away from the hole and soon all we heard was a big explosion, the hole was sealed of by the debris, both of us ran and ran as far away from the two kingdoms as much as possible and lived a simple life away from the kingdom, it took months after for Christia to recover from the incident I could barely talk to her, then we were found by Ander and here we are." Alice said

"I didn't know that you and Christia went through this much." I said.

"Well we have, now that you know this don't bring it up to Christia anytime soon. Got it?" Alice gave us a serious look.

"Got it" I said. Alice then turned to Levi and Lilith.

"Don't have to tell us twice." Lilith said. Levi stayed silent.

"Thank you" Alice said. The atmosphere around Alice then turned gloomy and soon the room was dead silent. I think its best to change the subject.

"Hey Alice, what are you doing tomorrow?" I asked. Alice responded with a surprised expression.

"Oh me? I'm going hunting again, to earn some income." Alice said.

"What do you hunt?" I asked.

"Pigs, cows, chickens, any animal that is edible or rare." Alice said.

"What do you do after?" I asked.

"We either trade it or cook it." Alice answered.

"Do they fetch a good price in the market if you trade it?" I asked.

"Rare types do, commons like pigs and cows not so much." Alice said.

"So, you don't hunt monsters." I asked.

"You, mean the corrupted right? Well their parts give a good amount of gold and income, but hunting them alone is dangerous. I rather do it with at least one or two more people." Alice said. She is right, in MMORPG's most people would party up with others to complete dungeons and kill monsters for certain quests. Having a party can let someone depend on the people they are with and if the party is well connected, there is room for team work and strategy. In other words partying up is a key factor in playing and surviving in MMORPG's. This is my chance to start clearing some levels.

"Then how about I join you then." I offered. All of them stared at me with widened eyes and a surprised expression.

"What?!" Terra exclaimed.

"Yeah, What!" Lilith exclaimed.

"Why do you want to hunt with Alice?" Levi asked.

"I've got to pull my own weight around here right? I think I can do it better if I can hunt, besides I'm an adventurer remember." I said.

"Sure, but-" Alice said.

"But, You cant! You heard her its dangerous!" Terra exclaimed

"She's right even if you are an adventurer if your not careful, one wrong move can lead you to death." Lilith said.

"See?!" Terra exclaimed. She must really be worried about me after seeing today she's the type of person who would blame herself over the mistakes of others, and if I don't come back she might blame herself again for not stopping me. I took a deep breath and tried my best to relieve her of her worries.

"Terra it'll be alright, I'll make sure to come back in one piece." I told her. Her expression didn't change as her serious eyes continued to stare at me her expression became furious.

"Yeah right..." Levi mumbled. Lilith then elbowed her on the shoulder.

"OW!" Levi cried.

"This isn't a joke Zach! You really could die out there!" Terra shouted.

"Oho? Is this for protection or are you just jealous that he'd rather go with Alice instead of you?" Lilith grinned. Terra looked back at Lilith and had flustered expression.

"I am not jealous!" Terra retaliated.

"Jealous of what?" I asked.

"Uumm, I uh" Terra's face turned red.

"Sigh, Terra if it makes you feel better I'll go with them" Lilith proposed.

"Lilith..." Terra said staring at Lilith. The atmosphere around her loosened.

"Are you sure Lilith? You don't have to come if you don't want to." Alice said.

"Its a nice change of pace, besides if I don't then Terra is just going to keep whining." Lilith said pointing towards Terra.

"HEY!" Terra shouted.

"Just kidding, so Terra is it alright now?" Lilith said.

"Hrrmm... Fine! But I wont forgive you if Big brother doesn't come back!" Terra exclaimed.

"Roger that!" Lilith grinned.

"We'll take care of him" Alice said.

"I'll be back. I'll make sure to go with you to the village once this is done, okay" I rubbed her head and gave her a gentle smile so as to reassure her.

"You better come back! Or else I wont forgive you!" Terra exclaimed.

"I will." I said to her with a smile and she smiled back.

"Alright I guess were hunting monsters tomorrow." Alice announced. Finally I can fight! This will be my first step to getting out of this world for all of us.

"Now all of you get a good sleep tonight we have a lot of work in the morning, I'm gonna check on Christia see how she's doing" Alice said, and went down the hatch.

(Back to Zach present time) NOTE: THE LAST CHAPTER PLUS THE FIRST PART OF THIS CHAPTER WERE ALL FLASHBACKS OF ZACH. ZACH IS CURRENTLY ON HIS BED REFLECTING.

"This world really is different from the Minecraft I knew 6 years ago." I said. There was the story of creation,and the history of Creepers. I never heard anything about this, in the past 6 years I was away. This is probably some history Mojang added just to make this seem like an actual MMORPG, or just to add flavor. Speaking of story's, what about Christia? No not just Christia, everyone else's past. Was it just generated by the system or was it something else.. I didn't know under all that joy and light headedness was a dark past.

"I hope she's alright" I said. I continued to stare at the ceiling until a thought came to my head.

"A dark past, huh?" Zach soon remembered a disturbing memory.

"I guess I'm not the only one here in this world...Tch! " Zach flicked his tongue out of anger and clenched his fist. After a few seconds he let go of the force and slowly opened his hand.

"Why did I have to remember those now!" I shook my head furiously to forget, after some time I did. I then continued to stare at the ceiling. More and more questions just keep coming to my head, every time I try to answer them I get even more questions, I really need to get some answers. I sighed.

"I think its about time for me to sleep, I wonder if I'll meet her again." I slowly closed my eyes to finally end this day.

End of Chapter 11

PLS CRITICIZE.

What ever criticisms you guys have for my story pls lay them down. This might end up feeding fires, but I'll say it anyway. If you guys go to the review section you'll see a recent criticism from a certain guest. I can agree that I was desperate for favs and follows or even reviews, because 1 I thought my story was good, but now I realize that it is not as good and it sucks. And two I guess I'm surrounded by others who always say that it is good, but again my story, not good. If it weren't for that comment I wouldn't have known, even if it was harsh it still gave helpful tips and advice to improve, so if you can I'd like to see more stuff like that, just don't roast me too hard. If you wanna bash pls add something helpful and also if you are gonna submit a criticism pls identify where it is cuz in the guests review, he said "flow of combat" I have not clue where that combat can be, because I don't recall putting any yet. If you submit a criticism, I will try my best to read and follow if I find any useful or agreeable reviews. They are all staying there by the way not deleting any review, cuz its your right as the readers and so for others to see as well. You can bash me about how I'm doing this to get on everyone's good side, go ahead but all I'm saying here is the truth.

Lastly, this is to the certain guest who reviewed. (If you do read this)

First of ouch, second thanks for telling me. I'm sorry I cant follow everything that you said and be equal to your standards and probably most people think the same way as you, but I'll try.


	12. Update 12: First hand Combat

Chapter 12: First hand combat.

I opened my eyes all I saw was darkness. So I'm here again... Now where is she?

"Zach, your here" The same feminine voice came to greet me in a formal tone.

"Um, yeah" I said. I have to ask now before I leave.

"I want answers." I ordered and gave a stern face. She did not show any reaction, but responded as she always has.

"One must ask a question to receive an answer." She said. This is my chance to find out some answers. I swallowed my throat before I began to talk.

"My friends told me the story of creation of how this world was made by two Gods, one named Admin the other Eve. According to the story in order to save the world Admin split Eve in two forming the builder and the destroyer and thus the end of Eve. There was a theory made that Eve still lived in search of the next beings to judge this world. When I first met you, you said "It is up to you to decide the fate of this world"." I said. The atmosphere in the area changed as I finished my sentence.

"So my question, Are you Eve?" I asked with a serious tone. She didn't answer me immediately. It took her a few seconds to respond as I patiently waited.

"All of your evidence that led you to ask this question are truly remarkable, to answer your question... Yes I am" She answered. So she was Eve, was what I thought but...

"Yet I am not." She said afterward. What? Isn't she contradicting what she said a few seconds ago?! What is she saying? My expression turned confused

"What?" I asked confused.

"I am but the soul consciousness of what once used to be Eve. After the first catastrophe when she was formed into the builder and the destroyer, her existence left the very planes of this world, but before she disappeared she separated a piece of her consciousness in order to find the next beings. Though I can only provide you with little information to this world, I was tasked to find the next beings to fight the evil, and so I've chosen you Zach." She said. My eyes widened as I heard her answer, it only led to even more questions. I have to find out more.

"So what's your name?" I asked.

"As I have told I am only a fragment of her memories, I have none." She said.

"Can I call you by Eve?" I asked.

"Of course, what ever suites you" Eve answered in a solemn tone.

"So Eve, If you have chosen me then, which of the two am I?" I asked. I expectantly waited for her answer. Eve then began to speak.

"You are the-" My heart raced as the words came, my curiosity was at its peak. I wanted to know so badly, but she soon stopped speaking. She gasped, her tone and expression changed.

"Oh no, at a time like this!" Eve said worried.

"What's happening?!" I asked. She sounded worried, did something happen?

"I can't explain, I must hide before they find me." Eve said. They? There's someone looking for her? I needed to know.

"Before who find's you?" I asked.

"I'm sorry Zach, I will not be in contact with you for a some time, but I promise you we shall meet again" Eve said, I saw the white light coming closer.

"Wait!" I shouted, but it didn't reach her before the white light came to exit me from the space. I soon opened my eyes again to see the ceiling of my room.

"I was chosen?" My heart raced with excitement. I smiled, I was honestly happy I was overjoyed with the thought that I was chosen, but my mind lingered over the question of Why? Why was I chosen of all the people in the world. I wanted to gather more answers but I guess the circumstances wont allow me to. I wonder how long she meant by "some time"?

"Oh, I'm supposed to hunt today with Alice and Lilith, better not keep them waiting." I said. I tried take my mind of my conversation with Eve. I went out of bed, took my regular clothes and climbed up the ladder. As soon as I my head popped through the hole of the hatch Terra was there ready to greet me.

"Good morning, Big Brother!" She said gleefully.

"G-Good morning Terra" I said back. We both went to the dining table and there was Lilith eating breakfast.

"Hi Zach." Lilith Greeted me.

"You too Lilith... Where's Alice?" I asked.

"She's downstairs getting changed." Lilith answered.

"Oh, ok" I said and soon after sat down together with Terra and started to eat our breakfast. A few minutes later, Alice came up the hatch bringing with her a good amount of brown looking objects.

"Oh, Zach your up. Put this on." She then handed me the brown looking objects. They felt smooth though I took a closer look and it looked like padding similar to what the guards at the front gate of Nara village were wearing.

"Um, Alice what is this?" I asked puzzled.

"A set of leather armor. You cant hunt corrupted with the clothes your wearing." Alice answered

"Leather armor?" I said. A window then popped up beside each piece.

Leather Cuirass

\+ 4 Defense

Weight: 150

Durability: 150

Description

Leather sewed into a cuirass.

Leather Pants

\+ 3 Defense

Weight: 175

Durability: 130

Description

Leather sewed into pants

Leather boots

+1 Defense

\+ 5 agility

Weight: 100

Durability: 125

Description

Leather sewed into boots

Leather gloves

+1 Defense

+2 Agility (Reason: Agility is all about movement, I was going to put attack speed but that's movement too)

Weight: 50

Durability: 120

Description

Leather sewed into gloves

Leather cap

\+ 2 Defense

Weight: 30

Durability: 120

Description

Leather sewed into a cap

So this is leather armor, technically this is beginner armor in Minecraft so I guess its alright. The stats seem to be decent as well for starting armor anyway. I was actually quite lazy to change clothes since changing clothes also let you equip armor, but to me it would be a hassle so I just did it the easy way with my inventory. I opened my inventory and placed all the pieces of armor. It seems they did not notice which led them to react...

"Zach where did it go?! It just glowed and disappeared!" Lilith said shocked.

"Now we cant let Zach hold anything." Alice said. They must be thinking that I may be a burden so I quickly showed them.

"D-Don't worry it's here." I said and waved my hand downward and pressed the inventory icon and the inventory window appeared and I turned it to them. After a few minutes of explaining...

"Ah, so that's how it is." Lilith said.

"I was worried that we lost them, if Ander was here she would have killed you." Alice said.

"Then I'm glad she wasn't here to see that." I said sarcastically.

I then unequipped my regular clothes and started to equip all of the pieces except for the cap, it just looked ridiculous to wear. The pieces of armor soon started appearing on my chest, legs, hands and feet. The texture wasn't all that bad it was a bit rough on the inside, but nothing I couldn't manage, it made me feel a bit protected actually. I turned to everyone else and they stared at me amazed.

"What? Is there something wrong." I asked.

"It's just unusual to see someone put on armor without taking their clothes of, but I guess that too can be called a gift." Alice said.

"Aren't you only saying that so that you wouldn't have to go through that cleavage of yours." Lilith said. Alice's face turned red and covered her chest.

"Shut up!" Alice exclaimed.

Lilith really does always like to mess with others anytime she wants. Well I cant blame her she's just trying to have some fun after all before Ander comes back.

"I think it's amazing!" Terra said.

"You find anything strange to be amazing Terra" Lilith said.

"Hmph!" Terra said with her arms crossed.

"Hahaha" I laughed at Terra's reaction. She showed a slight smile after.

"Alright now that you've put on your armor, its time you choose a weapon." Alice said. A weapon? About time I did, the only weapons that ever existed in minecraft before were the tools we had which were swords, axes, pickaxes and shovels. Now that this world has been transformed into an RPG there should be a wide variety for me to choose from.

"These are the one's we have. You can pick from these" She laid down the weapons on the table. A sword, A bow and A knife" Alice said and laid them down on the table.

Iron Broad Sword

\+ 8-10 Attack

Range: Short

Status: Sharp

Weight: 250

Durability: 300

Description

Standard Iron forged in to a broad sword.

Bow

\+ 4-8 Attack

Range: Long

Status: Durable

Weight: 100

Durability: 150

Description

Standard bow made from sticks and string.

Iron Dagger

\+ 6-8 Attack

Range: Very Short

Status: Sharp

Weight: 150

Durability: 100

Description:

Standard Iron forged into a Dagger.

All of the weapons in front of me seem to be in good condition. I began to choose in my mind the best weapon I can use.

The bow gives a decent amount of attack damage, but is used best in long range and requires the user to have keen precision and accuracy in order to land a critical hit in it's foe, if it misses an arrow it's worthless.

The knife, unlike the bow one must be at a closer range to the enemy however it can give the wielder more agility offering a less chance to be hit and make swift strikes making up for it's lack attack damage and reach.

The sword just like the knife must be at close range, but not as close as the knife as it offers more reach and unlike the knife it gives more weight therefore having less speed yet offering higher attack damage and having a better support at parrying attacks.

I was never one for accuracy that's why I stayed away from most if not any shooter game, so the bow is out of the question. The knife, I was always up for agility and getting in and out of tough situations as fast as I can, but the reach is too short. The sword, is a more balanced choice for me even if it give's me less agility rather than the knife I was always more of a DPS, evasion tank so the sword let's me become both roles. So I know what I'm gonna pick.

"I'll take the sword then" I said.

"The sword huh? It's a balanced choice for anyone." Alice said.

"You know how to use it?" Lilith asked me.

Crap!, I just remembered I don't have any idea how to use a sword here nor have I ever even held a real one, all I know is to left click and run if I had a mouse and keyboard which I don't. Well I've watched a bunch of medieval sword fighting movie's in my younger years so I should be able to copy and apply. Plus this is the place I spawned at, in rpg's wherever the player spawns at first are where all the low level monsters are, so supposedly there should only be beginner mobs to fight, so I should be fine right? I swallowed my fear and said.

"Uhm, O-Of course I can" I said hesitantly. I hope I'm making the right choice here, this is the only way I'd be able to go start leveling.

"Good, it's nice having someone who has experience in fighting." Alice said.

I then picked up the sword, the second I held it in my hand. I felt the weight of the sword, though it wasn't that much that I couldn't carry it, but it was heavy. There wasn't any "required" status on the window so why is it still a bit heavy, in times like this in any RPG the equipment the system allows one to wield wouldn't have made any difficulty for the avatar to hold. So why? Then I remembered something. My strength stat at the moment was only 5, as of now I should be able to take the weight and use this sword to a good extent. So that means even if it doesn't say what's required, wielding equipment in this world is dependent on ones attributes. If a person doesn't have a sufficient attribute level the system will let a person wield it, but as a consequence that person wouldn't be able to use the weapon properly, I guess that a fair kind of system.

A window popped up.

[One-handed sword Combat skill unlocked.]

I unlocked a skill? One-handed sword combat skill... I'll find out about that later on. Lilith then also grabbed her sword and placed it in her scabbard, after we gathered our things before moving out.

"Alright we should get going now." Lilith said.

"Ok let's move out" Alice said.

"Y-Yeah" I said, before we stepped out the door Terra interrupted us..

"Everyone take this with you!" Terra said. Terra began to give a square like box to Alice and Lilith. It had fine aromatic smell that tickled my nose. I go curious of what's inside so I asked Terra.

"Terra what's in that box?" I asked.

"It's a packed lunch of course." Terra answered

"Packed Lunches?" Alice said puzzled.

"You'll be coming back at evening right? so its best you eat something while your out." Terra said.

"Thanks Terra we'll be sure to eat it" Lilith said.

"Here Big Brother, I made one for you too" Terra said with a big smile and handed me the box.

"Um, T-Thanks Terra" I said nervously with a slightly blushed face.

"Hehe, Your welcome" Terra giggled.

"You sure are persistent one aren't you Terra" Lilith said.

("S-Shut up!") Terra said silently.

(Note: Whenever there is something like said silently or whispered no other character than who the character is talking to has no Idea what that person said, unless the person has an extremely high sense of hearing)

"We'll be back at sundown, Terra please take care of the house for us" Alice said.

"Yes!" Terra said.

We all then started to walk, but before we entered the forest we got a final good bye call coming from Terra.

"Bye Everyone!" Terra called out. I smiled and waved back to her before we entered the dense forest.

We all started to journey through the forest. This was the same forest where which I spawned in, I didn't really explore the entirety of the forest since I didn't really have too much time so where could the mobs be?

"Um, Alice do you know what kinds of corrupted are here?" I asked

"Hmmm, Whenever we hunt in this forest the normal corrupted that could be seen would mostly be goblins.

"Goblins?" I said. I see just like the quest on the town cork board, this is goblin territory

"Do you know what they look like?" I asked.

"Goblins are green skinned have elongated noses and are very short and usually wield stone or scrap weapons they could find. They aren't too strong heck anyone with can kill a goblin with some effort, but in numbers they are quite an annoyance. They should be roaming the forest now at this time and can be spotted most often." Alice said.

"We know a place where they usually go to" Alice said.

A place? well she has been hunting here for a long time its only expected that an experienced hunter would know where hunting spots are. I guess that helpful since in RPG's farming is a very essential part of gameplay. Farming is killing mobs over and over again in order to get loot or just grind experience points to level up. Its a hassle, but it works.

"Huh? Where?" I asked.

"You'll see" Lilith said.

We continued to journey through the forest when we were alerted by a nearby sound.

"Did you hear that?" I said.

"Yeah, it sounded like it came from over there." Lilith said. We then went over drawing out our weapons ready to attack, but it wasn't as big as a threat as we thought. We then hid in the bushes

"Oink, Oink" It looked like a pig, but it had a brownish fur covering its body and had tusks at its mouth and had a much more bulky build than the pig I killed the other day.

"What is that?" I asked.

"It's a boar." Alice answered.

"A boar?" I asked. A window popped up beside it.

Boar

LvL: 1

Race: Animal

Type:Mammal

HP: Full

Gender: Male

"It's not a corrupted, but this should be fine as well" Alice said.

The boar then turned towards us and let out a loud growl before it started running towards us.

"Looks like we got it's attention." Lilith said.

"I'll fire an arrow at it, it would be stunned giving us enough time to kill it." Alice said. Alice was about to fire an arrow, but I stopped her.

"No, I'll take this one" I said. This is my chance to at least show them that I can fight, whether the outcome is good or bad I don't know, but I at least have to try.

"Alright then, go ahead, we'll back you up if anything goes wrong." Alice said putting down her bow and arrow. I then got on my feet and started to approach it.

I then walked a few steps away from them, drew my sword and spread my legs to form my stance. The boar was still charging at me. A few seconds before it could hit me I quickly placed my sword in front of it to block the attack. It's tusks clashed with my sword, but it didn't push me back. I felt the force, but it wasn't too much I expected a little more impact. I quickly lifted my sword from it's tusks and stepped out of it's way. Once I was behind I made a slash at its bare back. "Oink!" It squealed as a quarter of it's HP deteriorated the bar was still green though. It turned to me once more and made attempts to slash me with it's tusks, I dodged one by one it felt slow, must be due to my increase in agility from my fight with Etrina.

I made a leap back to gain some distance away from it. Steamy breath then poured out of it's nostrils. It seems like I got the higher aggro, time to use it's anger against it. Aggro, it's an abbreviation of Aggravate. Aggro is mostly used by tanks in RPG's to keep the enemies on them rather than other players acting as supports or with low HP and Defense. Too much Aggro on one person can prove to be fatal especially on multiple enemies and strong opponents.

It started to charge again, instead of blocking this time a few seconds before it hit me I made a quick 360 degrees turn towards my left and made a downward backhand slash at it's neck. The boar then crashed on the ground.

"I-I did it?" I said to myself in disbelief. It's pattern was fairly simple to learn, it didn't really have good reaction time to sudden changes either making it an easy target. Is it dead? No it looked like I scored a critical hit it's HP made it all the way to the red zone.

It didn't seem like it could get up, it's still alive so it should be able to get up and attack right? A change in patterns perhaps? Or maybe... they feel pain as well, so just like people they also made mobs feel it as well, just how realistic is this world? As I approached it for the final blow it continued to squeal for its life to no avail, soon as I reached it I positioned my sword directly on it's head and rammed it in. "OINK!" It let out a loud squeal before died. It lied dead on the ground, I took my sword out and a window appeared in front of me.

[One handed Sword skill +1]

As expected, combat skills level up the same way as support skills do by repitition. I then took another glance of my kill below my feat.

"Hey Zach, you alright? You seem to be spacing out" Alice said.

"Oh, um right. Sorry!" I apologized.

"I was a bit worried at first, but it seems you can wield the sword just fine. You shouldn't have any problem with goblins with your current ability." Alice said.

"Hehe" I laughed scratching my cheek.

I then turned back to the boar beneath my feet, surprisingly its still there at the same spot it hasn't disappeared into dust yet. I thought it was going to disperse into dust, but it's still there, it is dead right? The HP bar is gone so why is it still here. Then a window appeared saying "Would you like to harvest?" Harvest was one of the support skill if I remember correctly, but what does it mean?

"Hey Zach could you step away from it for a sec." Alice said.

"Oh, sure." I said and did as she told. Alice then approached and kneeled down as she soon reached for her knife at the back of her waist. She then stabbed it and let it slide through the boar's body. Thankfully there was no blood or guts all I did see was a grid on the inside, must be the ones and zeroes of the program. After making a slice she then moved onto another area of the boar's body and made another slice. I didn't really know what she was doing at first so I wanted to ask.

"Alice, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm harvesting it." Alice said.

"Harvesting?" I said puzzled.

"You don't know? When you harvest animals, plants or corrupted your able to take body parts and rare materials that can be used for crafting later on. If you don't harvest things like this boar will just dissipate to dust with only dropping common things not even at a good quantity or quality. Even if your just going to take common things the quantity along with the quality is much higher than letting it dissipate, but the rarer the beast and the rarer the material needed to harvest a more skilled harvester is needed in order to be able to harvest it." Lilith said.

"Ah. I see." I said. So that's what harvesting meant, if you don't harvest your left with nothing with the spoils. So this becomes another key factor to this world, so people after finding out should start leveling that skill and parties are also going to need high level harvesters to be able to hunt rare monsters. A minute later the boar's body had a big hole in it missing most of its flesh supposedly, but it's all a red grid to me. Alice turned back to us with the pile of drops beside her.

"Whoa." I said with astonishment.

"Handy right? Come on and help me collect these." Alice said.

"O-Ok" I said. Me and Lilith soon approached and we started collecting them. There was a lot of raw meat from the boar, there were other drops as well like hide and tusks, but the meat was the most plentiful. There wasn't any gold though like most RPG's, right I have to remember this is Minecraft, the only way for a person to get gold naturally is by mining, which reminds me I really should start sometime soon.

"Alright were finish." Alice said wiping her sweat.

"What are you going to with the hide and tusks?" I asked.

"We could ask a craftsman to turn the hide into leather and after armor, for the tusks not sure. Worst case we'll just sell both." Alice said.

"Oh, guess that's fine." I said. Lilith then approached me and asked a question which I never hoped would be asked.

"So how was it your first time using a sword?" Lilith said.

"What?" I said startled.

"This is your first time right? Yeah I knew, you didn't really have any experience fighting before until you started fighting that boar." Lilith stated.

"Wait Zach is that true? I thought you said you knew how to use a sword." Alice asked. Well I knew that there would be a chance that they would see through me, I'd better just be honest.

"Um, yeah. I've never really held a sword or fought in my entire life I was always one to stay away from conflict even back in my old world. I was worried that you wouldn't have taken me along if I didn't lie so I'm sorry." I apologized with my head tilted down.

"You could have told us you know, but even if you didn't I think we wouldn't really have a problem." Lilith said.

"Huh?" I said with a confused expression.

"Seeing the way you fight, your movements and your calm expression like I said you shouldn't have any problem with the monsters in this area, but you still need training if your gonna fight anything stronger." Alice stated.

"So everything is fine?" I asked.

"Sure, just tell us next time alright?" Lilith said.

"Remember we trust you as much as Terra does. So please tell us if you have a problem" Alice said with a smile.

"R-Right, Sorry" I said and got back on my feet

"Alright we should get a move on." Alice said.

"Zach you didn't answer my question." Lilith said.

"My first time fighting? Hm, how do I put it... " I said before I paused.

"I guess I can call it a new experience, but it felt quite easy for my first kill." I said disappointed.

"Due to all of your experiences so far right? Don't worry there will be much more stronger enemies later on that can serve as a challenge for you." Lilith said. I waited for them to be a few steps ahead of me before looking at my sword.

To be able to freely move my body as I fight unlike being behind the screen, it felt great. Every time I swung my sword my heart would race with adrenaline. To experience a different world far from the one I used to lived in was amazing. In my mind I was jumping up and down in happiness, maybe this world isn't as bad as I originally thought, it might actually be fun. Was what I wanted to say, but I'm afraid they wont understand since they were never from the old world.

We continued to journey through the forest to Alice's hunting spot. Along the way we encountered other animals both hostile and friendly. We were able to harvest many drops from the animals we killed I was able to slowly refine my movements and my skills in sword wielding. We didn't really see any monsters on our way to the hunting spot which increased by two, I realized we were about a kilometer away from the house. Soon after we then reached the hunting spot...

"Here we are" Alice said with her hand out.

"T-This is the hunting spot? A stream?" I asked. It was a stream of water far from the lake surrounded by trees. It was silent, there was no one other than us at the location other than the sound of the streams calming waters as it flowed against the rocks.

"Yup. Now we better get into position before any of them come here." Alice said.

"Goblins would usually visit this stream in order to drink water, at times it would be a group 10 at maximum." Lilith said.

"10? And you've dealt with a group of that size?" I asked.

"That was with Ander, but with you I think we should do just fine." Lilith said.

"That reassures me." I said.

"Come on both of you we have to talk about the plan first." Alice called .

"Oh um, okay" I said. Then we soon huddled up together.

"Zach since your new to this, I'm going to tell you our positions here. Both you and Lilith will be staying down here fighting on lower ground hide yourselves and make sure you aren't seen" Alice said

"Yes" I said sternly.

"You see that rock over there on that mound of dirt? That's where I will be, I'll be providing support for any of them that get by you." Alice pointed to it.

"If I get overwhelmed from behind Lilith will be the one to back me up, if that time comes Zach you must focus on the goblins in front of you, got that?." Alice said with a serious expression.

"Yes, I understand" I gave another stern response.

"Alright, now lets get started" Alice said. We then ran to our positions, me and Lilith both found bushes to hide in while Alice went to the elevated rock and kept watch. I could say that is a good positioning in an environment like this and also makes use of everyone's strong points. It only took us a few minutes of waiting to find our first corrupted to come by. It's time for me to experience what true combat in this world is.

End of Chapter 12.

My story isn't dead yet! I am not quitting this series until I see it through you hear me? I've got a lot of stuff on my plate right now with school and all that but I'll try my best to update as fast and as best I can. Pls criticize. More fight's next chapter as well!


	13. Update 13: Strategic Combat

Chapter 13: Strategic Combat

We hid and waited in our positions for 20-30 minutes before our first target walked by. It had green skin, long nose and ears, jagged teeth, menacing eyes on a dwarf-like body wearing a tattered cloth wielding a wooden club. It perfectly matched the description given by Alice. It's a goblin! A window popped up next to it.

Goblin

LVL: 2

Race: Corrupted

Type: Demi-Human

Rank: Common

It took a few steps towards the stream and crawled on fours so that its mouth can reach the surface of the water.

"It's a goblin!?" I whispered.

"Looks like it came alone, wanna do the honors?" Lilith said.

"What me?" I said confused.

"Oh c'mon you were so eager to fight while we were getting here, plus it could serve as good combat experience." Lilith said.

"What are you two talking about?" Alice said coming down from her position.

"Alice?!" I exclaimed in surprise.

"I was wondering if we could let Zach take care of this one" Lilith said.

"Sure, It's fine if you wanna go at it. We'll back you up just in case so don't worry" Alice said.

"Sigh, Fine I'll go" I said

I stood out of my spot with my sword and started to approach the goblin. It took me to be on the opposite side of the stream for it to take notice of my presence.

"GRAAAH!" The Goblin snarled and began to run towards me.

I took on my ready stance and gripped my sword. I took a deep breath and narrowed my sights on the goblin. The goblin then swung its club coming from the left, I quickly parried. It was faster and I felt the force from the its swing, though it was stronger than the boar it didn't need much effort to parry. Once I parried the goblin quickly made an upward diagonal swing, I parried it. I continued to observe its movements. Observing the movements of mobs during combat in RPG's is a skill which is needed for any player wanting to master a game. In RPG's mobs would have different types of patterns which can confuse and catch a player of guard. An experienced player would watch its opponent, carefully timing the right attacks and skills to counter and do damage and even measure the seconds between the attacks and abilities. Any player who could master that technique would have no problem in hunting mobs in game. It continued to swing in different directions, using the same slow movement, all I had to do is watch which direction it was swinging from, it only made it easier for me to avoid it's hits. But, this is different from the RPG's back in the real world.

"GRAAH!" The Goblin snarled as it swung its club. I reacted a few seconds late as a result I was bashed on my shoulder by the Goblin's club.

"Tsk!" I flicked my tongue and leaped back. I held my shoulder, if it wasn't for this cuirass the pain would have been much stronger, but this wasn't even equal to the pain I have experienced. Even though I know what I needed to do, I still have a long way before mastering it in this world.

"Grahaha" The Goblin cackled at me smiling.

"Is that all you got?" I said and smirked at the goblin. The Goblin's smile vanished as it turned to anger.

"GRAAAH!" The Goblin snarled in anger.

It made a downward swing with both its hands, I dodged to the right and made two diagonal slashes on the goblins torso making the grid look like an X on its body.

"How does it feel?" I asked still smirking at the goblin.

"RAAH!" The Goblin shouted

The Goblin then made a swift horizontal strike hoping to catch me off guard, but failed as I side stepped backwards to avoid it. It's HP bar wasn't depleted as much as I thought it would, though it was still in the green zone I was able to do number on it. If I keep this up I should be able to kill it in the next 2-3 minutes. Every time the Goblin would swing it would take about 5 seconds to make another, in those 5 seconds I would make 1 or 2 hits on its body, a simple but effective strategy. It's HP finally made it to the red zone. It was then taking deep breaths as its menacing eyes watch me. With its next move I would make the final blow. I thought that this mob was simple, but what happened next turned out to be more complicated than I thought.

"GRAAAAAAH!" The Goblin Shrieked as like a war cry before finally making one last charge towards me. It then jumped towards me with its club in both hands about to make a downward swing, but it was a fatal mistake as it's chest was wide open. I thrust my sword in its chest, before it could make a swing.

"GRAH!" The Goblin snarled as it's chest met the edge of my sword.

The stab made it knock back a few inches from where I was standing. Its HP bar then disappeared signaling its death.

A window popped up.

[You Have Leveled up!]

[You have 3 attribute points to spend!]

I leveled up? Yes! This is my first step to getting stronger! So with each level up I get 3 attribute points, but isn't that too little? Now that I think about it I have 6 attributes in a world where you could develop them by just doing everyday things and activities that associate it to the attribute, so I it's only fair that I get this much plus the first few levels are the easiest to clear so there's also that. Nevertheless I'm just happy about leveling up.

Another window appeared.

[One-Handed Sword Skill +5]

Nice so I should have 8 skill points now. I should really look into that skill later on.

"That was a good show of combat, it seems your easily able to adapt to different types of movement" Lilith said.

"I'm actually quite impressed myself, you could probably apply to be one of the village guards with that kind of skill. I made a slight blush at their praise.

"Um, Thanks."

"But, you have to prepare yourself the next one isn't going to be as easy."

"Why?"

"We didn't tell you, but even though they don't look like much they are actually are quite coordinated, when a goblin shrieks when its weakened is a signal to call in the rest of its group."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me!" I exclaimed.

"I thought you wanted a challenge, plus the fastest way to hunt goblins is by letting one call the rest and were not going home empty handed." Lilith said.

"Even so, you could have at least told me about it." I said with my hand on my head.

"Sorry, but you already walked away from us, if we told you the goblin would have been intimidated to flee before we could do anything. Alice said.

"Now come on! Depending how far its group was we have at the very least 5 minutes to prepare our ambush!" Alice calling to us.

(5 minutes later)

We lied and waited again for our ambush, we left the Goblin's body their because according to Alice goblins have a good sense of smell so it would be easier for them to find it. All of us had our weapons out just waiting for the group to appear. Then we heard the sounds of grunting in the same direction our goblin came from, and appeared from the vegetation was a group of four goblins. One of them was holding a wooden club, another a stone pick axe, and two of them with short swords, one rusty the other in somewhat good condition. What was unique about this group is that all of them wore tattered clothing, but one of them was wearing a helmet which was also the same one with the better conditioned sword. Windows appeared in each one of them.

Goblin

LvL: 2

Race: Corrupted

Type: Demi-human

Rank: Common

The info was the same except their levels. 2 level 2's one level 3. The one with the sword and helmet was the one with the most difference.

Goblin Platoon Leader

LvL: 4

Race: Corrupted

Type: Demi-human

Rank: Common

LvL 4? Depending on how the plan roles this might be a bit dangerous for me, but I can't get the thrill of it of my chest, this might actually prove as a challenge to test what my limits are. It began to examine the corpse of the goblin I killed earlier and began to look around.

"That must be the platoon leader" I said pointing at the one with the helmet.

According to Alice and Lilith every goblin group has a platoon leader, with him around the goblins around him will have higher strength and coordination than regular goblins so its strategic that we eliminate the leader first.

"Yeah, if we take out that one first the others should be less coordinated letting us pick them of." Lilith said.

"Now on my signal attack the rest of the group. Got that?" Alice said.

The signal is when she fires an arrow at the platoon leader. The plan was that once she fires, that if the leader doesn't go down me and Lilith prioritize it first, if it does then we wipe out the rest of the platoon.

"Yup!" Lilith said.

"Yes!" I said.

Alice nodded back to us before moving back to her original position on the rock. She went in a crouched position and prepared her bow and arrow. Her eyes narrowed as she was aiming for the precise moment to fire, and she fired! The arrow zoomed by in between me and Lilith and made it to it's target's head. I was expecting the helmet to give some defense, but it was no match for the penetrating force of Alice's arrow. Once it struck it's HP Gauge struck zero, an instant kill. That critical hit wasn't by chance it was pure accuracy, just like the boar and the other animals I fought their weak points are the same as animals back in the real world as well, strikes to the limbs, neck and head are crucial critical hits, I guess it works the same for these types of mobs as well.

"Ruh?" The Goblin grunted.

"Gruh?"Another Goblin grunted

The Goblins grunted at the sight of their dead leader, looking around the environment to see where it came from.

Lilith nodded at me signaling our assault, I nodded back and we both came out of our hiding spots and slowly walked towards them with our swords out. Unknown of what to do next the goblins next reaction was to attack us as well. They began to run towards us with their weapons in the air. Once they were a in range from us we began to take our stances. I spread my legs and readied my sword in my right hand, Lilith's stance was a stance with one foot in front of the other with both her hand holdings her sword positioned in front of her.

"Here they come, don't worry Alice and Me have your back! Take care of us alright?" Lilith said.

"Yeah, got it!" I said.

"You'll take the one with the club and the pickaxe you take the one with the sword!" Lilith said.

Leave them to me!" I said.

Lilith then dashed to the Goblin with the pickaxe and made a swift downward strike and leaped away. While the other two ran towards me. It seemed I was the one with more agro, must me from earlier I guess.

"GRAAH!" The Goblin snarled as it swung its club towards me from the left. I dodged the same direction and avoided it by a hair. I slashed it's leg causing it to trip incapacitating it for a few seconds. The Goblin fell to the ground and turned my sights to the other one in front of me.

"RAAH!" The Goblin shouted as it struck down it's sword, I parried it and made a quick stab to it's chest. It swung it's sword again, I parried it once more, all I need to do is follow the same method just like the first one I fought. Once it's health was 50 percent our swords locked.

"GRAH!" The Goblin snarled at me.

While my sword was locked on the Goblin I didn't notice the one earlier recover and only saw it once it was about to swing.

"Crap!" I said.

I thought I was going to take a hit, but before the goblin made a full swing two arrows pierced its body. One on the shoulder and the other in the back causing critical damage and knocking it back to the ground, it was Alice. She was in a different position than her the rock she was on and called out.

"Don't worry I got your back!" Alice said readying another arrow.

Right these are the people I trust, I don't shouldn't need worry, all I need to do is focus on the enemy in front of me! With all my strength I immediately broke my sword lock with the Goblin, breaking the Goblin's rusty sword and made a horizontal slash at it's neck. It's HP gauge disappeared as the goblin fell dead on the ground.

I then turned to Lilith to see how she was doing with hers, The Goblin in front of her seemed to still has a lot of health I would say it was about 75 percent of it's HP Gauge was still there. The Goblin swung the pickaxe with both it's hands, Lilith parried it. I noticed it was slower than the one I fought though. The Goblin swung again and Lilith dodged and made a quick step to get behind the Goblin and made 3 slashes on its back. The Goblin then tried to face where Lilith was, but Lilith had already moved to another spot and made another slash. Back when this used to be a game, I would call that the bunny hop tactic when fighting mobs to avoid attacks, but the way Lilith did it was too fast for the Goblin to even react, to be exact it only took one to three seconds for her to transfer to another spot. Once the Goblin would face the side she was on she was gone and would have scored a few more slashes on another blind spot.

It's swings had twice as much the interval of the goblins I fought earlier! So does that mean the weight of equipment and it's relation of strength also apply to the mob's too? Well the Level of that one was only level 2 so I guess their is a difference when it comes to mobs and their levels, but why would the system give it to mobs? Wait since the girls I met along with the villagers back at nara aren't really NPC's and can actually think like rational human beings and the fact that animals and mobs could feel pain and would react to it also that they react on emotion's and insults. Is it far fetched to think that these mobs have a slight amount of intelligence? If that's the case then the one Lilith is fighting just so happened to be the dumbest of the group for choosing a weapon it can't even use properly. What kind of computerized system did Notch create to make even mobs have intelligence?

"GRAAH!" The Goblin shouted in frustration as it swung, and was parried by Lilith.

Once it was parried Lilith released a fury of swings and strikes, wounding the Goblin's body as quickly depleting it's HP Gauge with every strike she made. I counted at least seven strikes, I could see a number of grid markings on the goblin's body. The Goblin then let go of it's pickaxe and stood in it's place as the last of it's HP dropped to the red zone. To finish it of Lilith made an upward diagonal slash at the goblin's chest. It's HP Gauge disappeared and the Goblin's body fell backwards.

I turned to our last Goblin still on the ground trying to crawl away from the scene of the battle.

"Gruh...Gruuh" The Goblin grunted.

I slowly walked towards it, once I reached it I anchored my foot on its back. It began to squirm for its life trying to escape. I made one last slash to whittle down the last of its HP. A few seconds later it's HP Gauge disappeared. My watched my experience points fill up my bar and it was on the brink of leveling up. Windows began to pop up.

[One-handed sword skill +7!]

[Skill: Sweeping Arc unlocked!]

I gained a skill? I'm guessing the One-handed sword skill or any other weapon skill works like a mastery system or a skill tree. I wonder what other skills I can get if I practice more. (Ohoho, you will all see)

"We did it." I said panting and took a seat on the ground. Alice and Lilith approached to where I was seated.

"That was masterful sword play there Zach are you sure you never held a sword before?" Alice said.

"Yeah, you seem to have gotten a hang of it already." Lilith said.

"Nope, not once in my life this is my first time" I said.

"Sorry Zach, I made you take on two of them even though I said I was going to" Lilith said.

"It's alright, Alice covered me. Thanks Alice" I said.

"No problem we are a group after all." Alice said with kind expression.

"Right, but that was some accurate shooting, I'm glad your the one who is supporting us." I said.

"T-Thanks!" Alice said with a slight blush.

"And Lilith, I've got to ask, the move you executed earlier was that a technique of some kind? I asked.

"No, the strikes I pulled earlier were all speed." Lilith said.

"Speed?" I said puzzled.

"Spiders have always known to be the most agile among the origin mobs before the corrupted came" Alice said.

"Wait, so shouldn't you be wielding something like a dagger or a knife then?" I said.

"True, but I want to have a little more punch to finish things of faster along with my agility." Lilith said nonchalantly manner

"Ah, I see." I said.

Well it makes sense spiders always did have the most mobility, and were the fastest heck they could even climb walls. It wont be a surprise if they didn't have the same abilities in this world.

"Now that that's over with, its time to harvest!" Alice said.

"Oh right.." I said. Then a question hit me, if meat, bones and hide come from a boar which is completely logical, then what are we supposed to harvest from goblins?

"Um, Alice what are we going to harvest from these goblins?" I asked.

"Hm? Oh, ears, eyes, nose, tongue..." Alice kept going on, so I stopped her before I could hear the rest.

"Hold on... Were supposed to harvest its body parts?" I asked.

"Yeah that's what were supposed to harvest when it comes to corrupted." Alice said. I felt a bit disgusted upon hearing that, but that too was logical in RPG's as well. Harvesting body parts in order to earn money.

"Is there anyone who actually buys this?" I asked.

"Well there are people in Nara village who would buy it, and afterwards bring them to the guild in the city." Alice said.

Guild? Well this couldn't be called an MMORPG without having guilds.

"The Guild? What would the guild want with this anyway?" I asked.

"I know some of these parts can be used for alchemy of some sort, with adventurers killing corrupted and harvesting their body parts and selling them it helps income flow through out the city's economy. That's what I know."

"Oh I understand." I said. Alchemy? That a bit gross from what I had in mind. Right I forgot in this world obeys the rules of the real world, and made it so that economics matter through out this world's society. So if there isn't any money going through the economy the city falls. I guess this is a reminder that this world isn't just a game anymore and that the actions we choose can affect the state of this world.

"Lilith could you harvest one of the goblins?"

"On it!" Lilith said.

"Oh Zach, could you help me harvest one of the Goblins?"

"H-Harvest? I don't know... how to harvest."

"Come on, your an adventurer right? You should learn how to do this!"

"Yeah, but..."

"It's easy, here let me teach you!" Alice grabbed me over to one of the dead goblins.

"Here use this." Alice then took a knife out and handed it to me. It was the size of a pocket knife, it had a double edged blade, one side being serrated the other fine and sharp. A window popped up.

Harvesting knife

\+ 0.5-1 Attack

Range: Very Short

Status: Sharp

Weight: 50

Durability: 150

Description:

A multipurpose double edged knife used to harvest corrupted.

It's attack is worse than a kitchen knife! It must really not be used for combat. I took the knife and turned to the corpse of the Goblin. The same window appeared.

[Would you like to harvest? Yes|No]

I then tapped on the Yes icon and began to show dotted lines over the Goblin's body and began to glow, probably showing me the parts I should cut and harvest. I guess this is the system's way of assisting players in harvesting. It's convenient I'll give it that. I crouched down.

"Okay, to start of we'll go with the easiest parts. First cut a piece of the ear." Alice pointed.

"Um, alright." I said. I just followed to where the system showed me where I should cut and used the fine edge to cut a piece of he ear of. Again I'm thankful there was no gore here and only red grids. I would have puked by now if that was the case.

"Good, next cut the nose."

I did as she said and cut where the dotted line was. Cutting through the rough skin was actually a bit difficult. Once I was finished I looked at the place where I cut and it was actually a bit slanted and it wasn't all that clean either as well as the nose I just cut of, much like the time when I was cutting up carrots for Christia. I guess I have to get better to receive substantial results next time. I continued to follow Alice's tutorial with the help of the harvesting system assist and harvest the eyes and tongue it took me a few minutes to harvest each of them. It actually felt disgusting to have to do this on a daily basis on hunting, its more like a chore.

"It seems you learned the basics, I'm going to harvest this other one right here."

[Basic Harvesting finished]

[Would you like to continue harvesting? Yes|NO]

I instinctively tapped yes and another window popped up.

[Warning: Due to skill inefficiency chances of failure are 75%]

[Advance Harvesting is recommended! Would you still like to harvest? Yes|No]

Advance Harvesting? What's that?

"Alice, um what's advance harvesting?" I asked.

"Advanced Harvesting is a skill which allows one to take much more complicated body parts of corrupted, like internal organs." Alice said.

"Internal Organs? What kind of use would those have?" I asked.

"As disgusting as it is I don't want to know what it's used for." Alice said.

"If we harvested them would people buy them?" I asked.

"I surely don't want to try, once you go back with Terra tomorrow try asking." Lilith said.

"Oh, ok then" I said.

I'll have to agree with that, why would this world let you harvest internal organs, I know they are obeying real life, but this is too much already.

I then pressed the No option and took the parts that I just cut as well as the goblin's tattered cloth, the body didn't disperse rather it was there without any of its facial features, so I guess as long as one doesn't use all of available harvestable items the body's don't disperse, so will they just rot? I'll figure it out later. I then placed them into my inventory and went over to Alice. A window popped up.

[Harvesting Skill +3!]

"I'm finished with mine!" I called out.

"Yup me two I got the other one too!" Lilith said.

"Okay, I'm about to finish up, could you collect their weapons?" Alice said.

"Yeah sure, C'mon Zach" Lilith said.

"Oh, Okay" I said.

"Thanks" Alice said and went back to harvesting the goblin.

Me and Lilith then began to pick up the weapons on the ground. I placed the clubs in my inventory, and felt my self get a bit heavier even though my hands were free. The clubs seem to have taken two boxes of my inventory space with added weight. So inventory also puts weight on the player depending on what the player is carrying, yet another important aspect of the game. I guess that is also affected by players attributes. I then picked up the pickaxe and placed it into my inventory. This time it took 3 spaces. Lilith grabbed the sword and helmet of the Goblin Platoon Leader. We both returned to Alice.

"Alright were done, I'm hungry so let's all take a break first." Alice said.

"Yeah, I'm dying to know what Terra prepared for us." Lilith said.

"Oh, right the packed lunch that Terra gave us." I said.

We then took went back to our positions and sat together in a circle. I really do wonder what she prepared us. From everyone's praises it seems that she's as good a chef as Christia is. Everyone took out the lunches Terra gave to them and began to open them.

"I got a sandwich." Alice said and took a bite.

"Mm!...As always she makes the best food!" Alice said.

"Mine's curry! Terra really does know me best!" Lilith said taking a spoonful of curry in her mouth.

"Its spicy just how I like it! Here Alice try some!" Lilith said trying to shove a spoon in Lilith's mouth.

"Eh! You know I cant take it!" Alice said trying to push Lilith away.

"C'mon one little bite wont hurt!" Lilith said still trying.

"No I!..." Alice said.

They continued to chat about the food Terra prepared for them for the next minute. They were like a bunch of school girls comparing what lunch their moms cooked for them. Once again I feel like the mature one here. I sighed.

"Zach open yours up I want to see what Terra prepared you!" Lilith said excitedly.

"Oh okay." I said.

I took my pack lunch out of my inventory.

I opened up my box and what looked to be an omelet with ketchup writing on it and a spoon inside. The words on the omelet were: Have a great day Big Brother! Love Terra! w/ a heart on the side of it. My face blushed as I read the words. I looked at the other 2 behind me.

"Aw! How cute! So that's what she meant by special!" Lilith said grinning at me.

"Is she really just a little sister?" Alice said. I looked at them with an annoyed expression.

"It's not like that! We only got this development yesterday!" I exclaimed.

"Were just teasing you, now try it." Alice said.

I took the spoon and cut open the omelet and out came pouring from it was rice, meat and vegetables enveloped in the same glistening sauce used to write the text on it. This is an omurice right? I took the spoon and shoved it into my mouth. My eyes widened as my tongue was flooded with the taste of the sauce. It blended the rice together to make it a savory dish. I could tell there were spices in here due to the aromatic smell and afterwards had a refreshing after taste! Terra really is a good cook.

"This taste's great!" I exclaimed before I shoved another spoonful in to my mouth.

"I told you so" Lilith said.

"Terra will be glad to hear that once we get back." Alice said.

(Terra's POV)

"Hey, why are you smiling?" Levi said.

"I felt somebody say something good about me." Terra said smiling.

"Stop it its creepy." Levi said.

(Back to Zach's POV)

"Now lets hurry we don't want any monster ambushing us while were here." Alice said.

We continued to eat and chat for the next few minutes. Once we were finished eating, we went back to our positions and continued to ambush any animal or corrupted that came near the stream there were animals like wolves, boars and other common rank animals and the only corrupted that came to the stream were only regular goblins nothing rare, but then something unexpected came our way...

END OF CHAPTER 13

I am back! Expect multiple chapters for the next 2 weeks this one and next week. Its semester break and I'm gonna write my best.

Alright all of you shut up about the whole omurice thing alright I didn't know what other kind of unique food could have been used to make it look like Terra cared.

I know I am not good in cliffhangers.

Lastly I am swearing to myself right now that I will not edit any more of my past chapters. well more like try to, if I do edit its only to correct grammatical errors and vocab. Not any more major changes or events because it might confuse you guys.

I tried to eliminate the main SAO from my story, So no more VR they are entirely digitalized into the system. So this is not just the brain anymore its both the entire body.

PLS Critisize


	14. Update 14: Psychological Combat

Chapter 14: Psychological Combat

After we ate lunch we continued to hunt animals and monsters that came near the stream. During that time I was able to increase my level to level 5. I don't understand how the HP system works though, it isn't giving me HP on level up, but I am getting bits and pieces so there's that. However like every RPG, its easy at first and as you keep playing it continues to get harder. So I expect that obviously my leveling speed will decrease along with the amount of HP I receive per level up, I don't understand why my MP (FYI: Magic Points)wont increase though, strange. Before we finished our break I opened up my stats and skills windows.

(I can feel some of you raging, because you might think this is a bit too much in such a short time.)

HP: 162

MP: 150

STR: 13

END: 11

AGI: 15

INT: 5

KNL: 5

WIS: 5

I've been focusing on sword fighting this entire time so its only natural that those attributes are the ones that are increasing I wonder how magic works here. I didn't use any of the level up points, because I thought that I should save it when the time comes, right now I have 15. I then went to my skills menu.

Skills

One-Handed sword skill: 18

I tapped on it and appeared were a list of unlockables. There weren't a whole lot actually, if I counted correctly I only saw 20. I thought there would be more, but it probably makes up with the wide variety of weapons which I have yet to see along with magic. I decided to look in to the new skill I got [Sweeping Arc].

[Sweeping Arc]

Swing your sword in a wide arc capable of knocking enemies of their feet. If successful it will leave them vulnerable for 8 seconds.

[Level 1: 4 seconds]

[Level 1: ATK +10]

[Cost: 20 STA]

So it means I it gives me a chance to make more attacks. What worries me is "if successful" that means there is a chance this skill wont work. Well I guess it means if it doesn't hit or is dodged or maybe blocked then the intended effect wont work. Since I'm battling common mobs I shouldn't be worried about that now. Another thing is the cost, 20 STA? I'm pretty sure that means stamina, but I don't see a bar around my hud that says how much I have. I hope this isn't a bug or something limited to me, but its my first skill so I should have enough stamina to use it. I'll try to ask Eve once she returns, maybe she could do something about that.

After I checked I told Alice and Lilith to incorporate it in our strategy if anything happens. Apparently something did happen...

We soon waited in our positions again waiting for the next passerby mobs to come to the stream, we were expecting goblins, but something much larger came.

It had the same look as the goblins with a rather dark brown tinted with green, it was 6 feet tall 7 feet if not slouched much taller than the Halfling goblins if this thing existed back in the real world it's height would be considered as a regular league basketball player, it was quite muscular as well wielding a large tree branch covered in spikes. It then began to drink from the stream's water.

"What is that?" I asked.

"That is a hobgoblin." Alice answered.

"A hobgoblin?" A window popped up.

Hobgoblin

LVL: 8

Race: Corrupted

Type: Demi-Human

Rank: Common

HP: Full

3 Levels higher than me? This might be dangerous, but we have strength in numbers so it should be fine.

"Hobgoblins are much stronger than a regular goblin. They could hit harder and endure much more damage." Alice said.

"Its not often when a hobgoblin is alone. Its usually with a pack of smaller goblins or at least with another hob" Lilith said.

"Why? Should they be with others?" I asked.

"They should, even though its stronger than them, its bigger and by definition slower. It would be more vulnerable if it didn't have a group with it." Lilith explained. So this one came alone, it probably thought it would have been alright to come alone since it didn't know it would be ambushed. This brings back that these things could actually think, like most I suspect this one didn't think either.

"I see, so what should we do?" I asked.

"Duh, we take it down just like the rest." Lilith said pulling her sword out.

"Zach were going to need that skill if anything goes wrong." Alice said.

"Right." I said readying my sword.

"You know the signal" Alice said and retreated back to her position.

Alice returned to her position and drew her arrow. She set her sights on the hobgoblin's head, and fired, but her accuracy was of and met the hobgoblin's neck.

"HRRAAH!" The Hobgoblin shouted.  
Judging by the shout, I guess she still got a critical hit.

It pulled out the arrow and began to look around, the initial reaction. Me and Lilith dashed out of our hiding spots, the hobgoblin only noticed us when we were only a few inches away from it.

"HRAAH!" The Hobgoblin shouted as it raised its spiked branch at us and slammed it on the ground.

As Alice said, it was slow and managed to avoid it. We then began to whittle down its HP. It swung from the left towards me, I dodged it. Once it made a full swing I started to count, and finished when it made another. 7 seconds was the interval between swings, it wasn't as slow as I thought probably due to level, but two extra seconds to swing a weapon is still a fatal. The Hobgoblin held its spiked branch back, I was counting, once I reached 7 it didn't swing, there was something wrong. The Hobgoblin made a horizontal swing and afterwards a downward smashing strike, me and Lilith avoided it by a hair.

"That was close!" I said taking deep breaths Lilith on the other hand was in the same situation, but she responded in an insulting manner.

"Hey, slowpoke try to keep up!" Lilith said insulting the Hobgoblin.

"HRAAAAH!" The Hobgoblin shouted enraged by Lilith's response.

"Lilith, focus!" I said in a serious tone, but it didn't seem to affect her.

"Yeah, I got it!" Lilith said a bit annoyed.

It was probably a skill this kind of mob could do, in RPG's mobs have certain skills they could use, similar to a player's skills. Like a players skills there's always a cool down effect before they could use it again. I counted ever since it showed that regular posture. After it swung it took about 13 seconds for it to issue a proper swing again. It was probably due to the skill, a small penalty perhaps? I stopped counting when it made the same position again. 33 seconds including its penalty in order for it to use it again. This time me and Lilith were prepared and easily avoided it.

"33 seconds, it needs 33 seconds to issue that skill!" I announced.

"What?" Lilith said confused.

"I mean there's a time interval between when it can use those skills."

"There's a time interval? We never knew that when we were hunting?" Lilith said.

"You didn't? I thought you'd know." I said.

"Well we did know it could do that, but we never counted soooo-" Lilith said nonchalantly.

"Sigh... I'll talk more about it later." I said and all I could do was tilt my head down and sigh.

I thought they'd know more about this forest than me, I guess they're not as strategic as me. No, right they have no clue that this world acts like a game.

"Kukuku... I'll remember that, thanks for the heads up. You need to chill out, come on!" Lilith said in a relaxed manner.

Ironic as we almost got our heads bashed in, whatever I guess I'll go with it for now. I ran back with her.

As it swung at Lilith, I would make a slash at its blind spot, Lilith would do the same even faster. Alice continued to barrage the Hobgoblin from her position.

The Hobgoblin was at a complete disadvantage with the 3 of us together, or so we thought.

"Alright were almost finished! Just a little more!" I said.

The Hobgoblin was taking deep breaths, crouching using its branch to support itself. I thought it was done for until the Hobgoblin smiled at us. I then realized our mistake, I quickly turned to Alice.

"Alice! Look out!" I called out.

"Huh?" Alice said looking behind her.

Alice turned to look behind her and there was another hobgoblin preparing to swing. Alice then redirected her bow to Hobgoblin behind her. The arrow struck it in the chest and canceled the hob's swing.

Alice then grabbed another arrow ready to shoot. I turned to Lilith.

"Lilith!" I called.

"I know!" Lilith responded.

Lilith ran towards Alice's position at phenomenal speed. The Hobgoblin was about to make a swing, this time Alice's arrow didn't cancel it out and the Hobgoblin swung its branch at Alice. Just before it made contact the club was parried by Lilith.

"Sorry I'm late!" Lilith said.

"Lilith!" Alice exclaimed.

"C'mon we have to get of this rock!" Lilith said.

Both of them jumped of the rock on the other side of the stream, the Hobgoblin soon followed. I was relieved that she made it in time, I turned back to the one in front of me. It managed to gather enough strength to stand up. It continued to smile, probably knowing that now I was alone it could take me out even if it was in a weakened state. I stood, with my sword in front and my legs spread apart. I narrowed my eyes. Once I did I felt that the reaction of the Hobgoblin changed. To the Hobgoblin this was like a challenge as it let a shout out.

"HRRAAAH!" The Hobgoblin shouted at me and began to run towards me with its spiked branch.

It swung, I parried. I was doing my regular strategy, but since it was focusing on me it had less blind spots. Its strength was unbelievable, I tried to block one of its attacks, but my hands went numb from the shock, however I got a taste of its strength the hard way. Carelessly thinking that this one was weakened was a mistake, I was hit twice resulting at a loss of 50 HP per hit, being damaged didn't do anything. It was like being hit with a baseball bat covered in barbed wire, the pain was unbearable, but I continued to fight. I ran back towards it and it revealed a new attack, instead of raising its spiked branch it retracted its fist. Which could only mean one thing, a punch. It used its free right hand to throw a punch at me. I quickly leaped out of its way avoiding its impact, but it was still grazed my cheek. I rubbed the grid wound of and looked back at my foe. 4 seconds was the time it took to do a punch, its probably due to a change in patterns or the fact that I wasn't separated with the rest of my group yet at the time it was supposed to do it. It tried to make combos with it punching and swinging its weapon. It became faster though, I kept dodging, parrying and slashing at it. My heart was beating fast I could have fainted, but under all the pain I was feeling a smile appeared, the thrilling feeling of putting your life on the line, no game back in the old world could have given this kind of feeling, and in my mind one word appeared, "Fun".

I continued to do this until its HP reached the red zone, but in the crucial moment I was caught in its Skill.

"CRAP!" I was hit on my chest and toppled me back around a meter from where I was standing. I landed on my chest with the sword by my side. I looked at my HP Gauge and 150 HP was gone.

"ARRGH!" I held my chest. Thankfully my rib cage isn't broken, but with the pain I'm feeling it might as well be.

"HRAHAHA" The Hobgoblin cackled at the sight of my weakness. It continued to do so while it was approaching me. I waited for the Hobgoblin to get closer. The Hobgoblin then raised its spiked branch to perform a downward swing. I smiled, quickly grabbed my sword and stood up to block its attack. The Hobgoblin's ceased cackling, its expression changed.

"Where'd your smile go?" I said enraging the Hobgoblin.

"HRAAAAAH!" The Hobgoblin shouted in anger.

It began to push even harder. I shifted to the side, sliding my sword against its spiked branch and made a slash on its shin causing one of its knees to fall. It was on the ground supporting itself with one leg, I was behind it preparing to swing my sword. In an attempt to retaliate, it tried to make one last swing at me, but it was too late. By the time it faced me, I made a swift horizontal slash aimed at its neck. Its neck began to pry open and soon was decapitated. The headless corpse slumped and fell side ways.

I had to give credit though, the Hobgoblin wasn't as dumb as the others, ambushing us was a wise choice and separating us, but-.

"You were strong, but you lost due to pride." There was no answer, well duh, I was talking to a corpse of course there wouldn't be an answer. I guess knowing that they actually think has gotten to my head, which raises the question what happens to the memories of these mobs when they die?

[You have Leveled up!]

[One-Handed Sword Skill +8]

[Skill: Precision Strike]

"Damn, maybe I'm underestimating my strength stat, I didn't think you could get decapitated in this game and am I improving a bit too fast?" I asked. I looked closer at the decapitated head. It became an item?! That's gross, but I still placed it inside my inventory space for later harvesting.

I wonder how Alice and Lilith are doing- Wait! What am I doing?!

"I have to get to Lilith and Alice quickly!" I said. I was about to dash over until I saw Alice come through exhausted.

"Alice! Are you alright? Where's Lilith?" I asked.

"She's been cornered by the Hobgoblin!" Alice said

"What! Then we need to-!" I was about to run towards her direction, until I was stopped by Alice.

"No, she told us to run! Its too strong!" Alice said.

What she said then pissed me off, there's no way I'm going to run. I'm not making the same mistake I did that day!

"Tsk!" I flicked my tongue out of anger and prepared my sword.

"You run. I'm staying." I said in a stiff tone.

"What!" Alice exclaimed surprised.

"If I don't come back by nightfall, consider me dead." I said with my head tilted downwards. Alice's expression changed.

"You really could die! Terra will be very sad if you don't come back don't you know?!" Alice tried to give me reasons why I should go back with her, but my mind was set and there wasn't anything that could change it.

"Then tell her I'm sorry for not being strong enough, if I'm going to die I'll die protecting Lilith." I said with a stiff tone.

"Aren't you being selfish?! Your pushing yourself to limits you know nothing of! Are you trying to be a hero!" Alice shouted. That's when I couldn't take it anymore, I grinded my teeth I turned back to her in furious eyes and shouted back...

"I don't want to be a hero! But I'm not going to run away knowing I could've done something to protect the precious people I know!" I shouted. Alice was stunned by my answer, but through my rage I began to run my mouth.

"Aren't you the one who's being selfish!?" I said. Alice's expression was surprised.

"What!?" Alice said back in a refuting tone.

"You want to rule a kingdom yet you save your own skin over risking yourself for the lives of others! You should know first hand of what needs to be done yet all you do is run from where you are needed!" I scolded.

"But Lilith said-!" Alice was about to say, but I was tired of her excuses and finally snapped.

"You don't even know how to stand up for yourself! You are a failure as a leader! You cant rule a kingdom nevertheless lead this group!" I scolded again. Alice's expression became blank as the words came out my mouth. Alice's legs lost strength and fell to the ground, she then began to sob with her hands covering her face. She began to mumble

"I'm sorry, I'm s-sorry..." Alice said sorrowfully as she covered her teary eyes. She looked like a child crying over a broken toy. Right, in the end she's just a child, I went too far this time.

"No, this is my fault I spoke out of my boundaries. I shouldn't have said those things to you." I said crouching down. Alice removed her hands from her face to look at me.

"If I come back alive I'll be sure to make it up to you later" I said and stood up. I was about to start running until Alice stood up after me and called.

"Wait!" Alice called. I turned back to see she has risen up from her pitiful state.

"I'm coming with you!" Alice said wiping her teary eyes. She said..

"So, what's the plan?" She asked me with a serious expression. Now that I think about it what was my plan? According to Alice its obviously stronger, so what should I do. I then remembered something... That's it! I know what I should do.

"I'll distract it, it should buy you enough time to get Lilith out, once she's out leave the rest to me." I said.

"Alright, lets go" Alice said. Both of ran to the opposite side of the stream.

When we got to the scene I saw the Hobgoblin in front of Lilith raising its hands together to perform a downward pound strike. I dashed over in front of Lilith and blocked the Hobgoblin's attack.

"Zach!" Lilith exclaimed with wide eyes

The Hobgoblins hands on the sword trying to put weight on it. I kicked it pushing it back and causing it to stagger. A dirty move I've seen in some sword fighting movies, kicking the enemy back to stagger them in order to buy time to focus on something else. A window popped up.

[Skill was unlocked after committing a certain action!]

[Martial Arts skill tree unlocked!]

[Skill: Kick Unlocked!]

A skill? Guess I'll look at it later. I turned back to the Hobgoblin. It seems that they were able to disarm it, Lilith must have been hit with one of the punches then. Alice came rushing to Lilith's aid.

"Lilith are you alright?!" Alice said worriedly.

"Alice!" Lilith said in a surprised tone with widened eyes.

"I thought I told you to run!" Lilith said with a worried like tone.

"I found Zach and told him what happened. Once he heard you were hurt he dashed to the rescue." Alice said jokingly.

"Now both of you rest, leave the rest to me." I said. Both nodded and began to flee from the scene before they were out Lilith said...

"Zach, be careful this one was stronger than the one we fought a while ago, it may even be smarter." Lilith said as she was being supported by Alice.

"Got it, but we'll see about that last part." I said and turned my sights to my enemy. Both Alice and Lilith had puzzled looks as they heard my final response before staying out of our battle range.

A window appeared.

Hobgoblin

LvL: 10

Race: Corrupted

Type: Demi-Human

Rank: Common

HP: 70%

Its HP Gauge seems to be in the yellow zone. Its level is higher I guess attack and endurance are also increased, that's probably why Lilith lost, but shouldn't they be better than since they were here before I was?

"Hruh...Hruh" The hobgoblin was watching us, particularly me. I did bring a special item along to aggravate it, so lets test it out.

"It looks like you did a number on my friend here, guess what, so did I" I said. I opened my inventory and took a special item out.

"I-Is that...!" Lilith widened her eyes at the sight of the item in my hand.

"Yeah it is.." Alice seemed less surprised, but still fazed.

Once I had it in my hand the Hobgoblins expression changed to an enraged mood. It was the other Hobgoblin's head. Knowing that mobs could think I thought I'd bring it along to incite it into a rage. Once I saw its expression change, I know I succeeded. Maybe I should keep up the act.

"Lets see if your as any stronger." I smirked taunting it. As expected it took the bait.

"HRRAAAAAH!" It shouted.

Its fists clenched, grinding its teeth and soon charged at me piercing the ground. It threw a punch, I evaded by rolling behind it and striking its limbs. It kept throwing punches at me, I evaded each one of them, but they all felt slow. Its probably due to my agility stat, it wasn't slow, I was faster. However comparing it to Lilith I still have a long way to go. I was following my same old strategy since I already knew its movements, the Hobgoblin was enveloped by its rage and continued to throw even more punches aimlessly trying to hit me, but that was also a mistake, seeing as it has no armor and it gave up its weapon, I can hit anywhere making its entire body vulnerable it also can't use its skill with out it. I made sure to make slashes at its critical points whenever I got the chance, each time I hit one of its critical points it gave a shout in pain. I knew that these things have minds of their own, but knowing they do also opens up many more weaknesses. Every time it's HP drops I noticed that its attack speed drops, well not by a huge number a few milliseconds at the very least which I didn't bother trying to measure, but it was getting slower.

Slowly but surely I made it's HP Gauge reach the red zone. It was grunting taking heavy breaths, it didn't even get a bruise on me. We were apart staring at each other in silence, I didn't want it to get any ideas of escaping or grabbing its weapon. So I decided to break our silence.

"You really are weaker, compared to your friend here." I taunted pointing at the head of the other hobgoblin.

"Hruh?" The hobgoblin grunted puzzled.

"I had much more fun fighting him. Weakling." I narrowed my eyes and smirked, challenging him.

"HRRRAAAAAH!" It shouted in its rage and charged at me again. Now is the time. I held my sword back mustering all of my strength into my next swing. I heard its footsteps grow closer and once it was a few inches away from me I delivered my skill head on. I shouted.

"Sweeping Arc!" I then swung my sword in a huge arc toppling the hobgoblin back a few meters landing on its back. There was a tiny sliver of red left on its HP Gauge. I only have 8 seconds for it to stay down I better lessen the gap between us before it could get up! I rushed towards it, the Hobgoblin flipped itself over trying to crawl towards its weapon. With the last of its strength it tried to reach for its spiked branch. I then caught up and kicked it away from its grasp, I position my sword on its head.

I stared into its eyes, the Hobgoblin was shuddered in fear, it was scared of me. Maybe I took the act a bit too far, I was reconsidering letting it go, but I hadn't realized I showed a grave weakness. I hesitated for a moment, in a brief second the Hobgoblin's eyes changed and smiled, it tried to grab my leg in a last attempt to escape. But the second it did I plunged my sword deep in its head, its hands didn't even touch me.

"Tsk!" I flicked my tongue frustrated.

[One-Handed Sword Skill +4]

+4? Its starting to get less now, I wasn't too surprised as I already predicted it. Alice and Lilith started to approach me. I was about to do the same until, I suddenly felt exhausted as if all the energy in me washed out. I used my sword to support me, taking deep breaths. Alice and Lilith noticed something was wrong and began to run towards me.

"Zach! Are you alright?!" Alice exclaimed worriedly.

"Did you get hit anywhere?!" Lilith as well.

"No, just tired. Give me a couple of minutes to catch my breath." I said taking deep breaths leaning on my sword.

How did I get so tired all of a sudden? I'm pretty sure, no its probably due to the use of the skill. It did say it needed stamina, so of course it makes you tired after using a skill. After catching a few breaths I stood up and took my sword out of the Hobgoblin.

"Are any of you hurt?" I asked.

"Only Lilith, but I gave her a potion so she should be alright by now." Alice said.

Upon hearing her say those words, I immediately became angry because of the fact she had potions the entire time and she didn't offer a single one to us.

"Wait...you had potions... this whole time! Why didn't you give it to us before we started fighting?!" I exclaimed in a surprised tone.

"I forgot." Alice said ever so calmly. All I could do was place my hand on my face and say...

"Alice, you are a failure as a leader." I said disappointed.

"What! I am not!" Alice exclaimed.

"Well if you gave it to us earlier, Lilith might have had a less difficult time." I said.

"Your, er-" Alice was about to say I was wrong, but after realizing I was right tilted her head down and gave out a sigh. Maybe I went a bit to far on that one. In silence Lilith spoke up to defend her.

"No, it wasn't her fault. It was my fault for not being serious." Lilith said solemnly. Both of us were stunned by her tone, I've never seen her like this probably not even Alice.

"Lilith..." Alice said.

"You guys were right, I should have been more serious, if I was we could have dealt with the Hobgoblin without your help" Lilith said with the same atmosphere.

"But anyways thanks for saving us Zach, me most especially. If you weren't here I would be dead." Lilith said. I wanted to say something to her to cheer her up, but I couldn't find any words that would. Luckily it was broken by the next words she said.

By the way did you know how scary you looked?" Lilith asked and looked at me.

"Scary?" I said confused.

"Yeah, your eyes were like this!" Alice said stretching her eyes.

"And when you dropped the head of the hobgoblin! It felt chills go down my spine!" Lilith said.

Ah, so they're talking about my performance with the Hobgoblin. Now that I think about it, maybe I did push it a bit too far, knowing that the mobs have minds, hatched an idea that I could taunt them psychologically to make them show weaknesses. As far as the battle goes, it was a complete success, but I think I got carried away with the whole thing.

"You really can be scary, your starting to remind me of Ander!" Lilith exclaimed. Again with this Ander person, just how much do I have in common with her.

"Sorry, that was just an act. I was trying to aggravate it into attacking me. I didn't think it worked so well though." I said jokingly.

"You need to act better then!" Lilith exclaimed.

"Hahaha" I made a small laugh. I was happy she was returning back to her old self again, without her usual attitude it wont be the same once we go back to the house.

"Well, I'm just happy your safe" Lilith said nervously as her cheeks began to grow red.

"Lilith..." I said surprised. I've never seen her like this, did something happen when I was gone? I was going to ask but...

"Oh? Have the tables turned? Looks like I have to report this to the others now" Alice said grinning at Lilith. Lilith cheeks began to grow even more red and snapped back at Alice.

"No! That was not what I was thinking!" Lilith exclaimed holding Alice by her shoulders.

"Is it? Cuz that what I'm seeing right now" Alice said in a teasing tone.

"Alice! Don't you even think about it!" Lilith exclaimed.

"I'm just kidding, now lets harvest these guys and head back!" Alice announced.

I didn't really understand what they were talking about, (Density) well either way I'm glad everyone is back to their usual selves. While I was enjoying the sight of Alice and Lilith I felt something ominous and quickly turned around, but there wasn't anything there just the forest.

"Zach, are you alright? You seemed worried all of a sudden." Alice said worriedly.

"Um, N-No I'm fine." I said and looked back.

I wonder what was that I felt just then. Is there something watching me? I shrugged the thought of and joined the others so that we could harvest the Hobgoblins. After we harvested the two corpses, we decided to call it a day and headed back home. It was already evening and were nowhere close to the house yet, I hope Terra wont be too mad. We all continued to chat along the way, avoiding any possible combat after what just happened. When we finally reached home, Terra opened the door for us worried at the same time happy.

"Big Brother, Your back! Did the lunch I give you taste good? Are you hurt anywhere?" Terra exclaimed asking me all sorts of questions. Was she really this worried about me?

"Somebody seems to miss you" Lilith said.

"We'll talk about that after we get inside." I said making a forced smile.

"Okay!" Terra responded.

We all had dinner, we began to chat about what happened, everything seemed to be normal, except for Alice. Alice was almost silent throughout the entire time, its probably due to what I said earlier. I guess I'd better do something.

"So um, Alice what do you want to make me do?" I asked. Alice made a surprised expression before remembering.

"Hm? Oh right!" Alice said. Everyone suddenly gave attention to our conversation.

"What are you two talking about?" Christia asked.

"What?" Terra said with a puzzled expression.

"None of your business!" Alice exclaimed.

"Maybe it was..." Lilith said grinning, but-

"Shut up." Alice said annoyed.

"What you said was true though, a leader shouldn't have to sacrifice their own people for their survival. Even more in my case, I have a long way to go before I can truly rule the kingdom." Alice said

"Alice..." Christia said staring at her. Since she is her best friend she must be worried about her, but then she smiled. Alice caught a glimpse of Christia and she too smiled back.

"I see..." I said. I thought I was home free but...

"But that doesn't mean your of the hook!" Alice's expression changed to a more serious look.

"W-What?" I said with a confused expression.

"You said some mean things to me! So you need to do the next words I say!" Alice exclaimed pointing at me. It looks like she will make me do something after all. I hope it wont be too bad. I took a deep breath before I said.

"O-Oh, then what will you have me do?" I asked. I was worried she might make me do something embarrassing or laborious, but what she had me do wasn't bad, however it wasn't too good either.

"You have to be my hunting partner from now on!" Alice said and suddenly grabbed my arm.. I just sat there with a blank expression. I mean I was technically alright with that since I do have to grind my way up, but...

"WHAT!" Terra shouted in disbelief.

"If we kept this up I wouldn't survive if I went alone. So cant you share him this once Terra" Alice said with her cheeks blushing smiling at me then faced Terra.

"NO! Big Brother is mine!" Terra retaliated back and grabbed my other arm. Her cheeks grew red before she began to argue with Alice.

"Well things are back to normal." Lilith said grinning at me.

"Noisy, as always" Levi said annoyed.

"Things are starting to get more lively from now on!" Christia said laughing at my situation.

"Hahaha" I made a forced laugh as the two girls holding my arms argue with one another.

Later that night we agreed that I'll alternate with both of them. They weren't too happy at first, but they later on reached an understanding and agreed. The next day I agreed to go with Terra to the village to trade as I promised. We found somebody to trade all our harvested parts from yesterday's hunt and in exchange received 1000G for it. That was a lot of money! All of us were amazed of how much we earned. We didn't see Etrina guarding the gate or to be found anywhere, according to the Chief she works at night now. From what I know, she really must be serious about keeping mobs out. We followed this kind of schedule for 2 months. Everything seemed to be alright, just not today. I was supposed to go with Terra to the village, but someone came to greet me, personally.

"We'll be leaving now!"

"Bye, everyone!"

We both left the front door. After we walked a meter away from the house, a punch came flying straight for my face. I tumbled back to the house, and in midair a hand grasped my throat and pinned me to the wall of the house. I held the hand currently holding my throat struggling to be free.

"Zach-!" I heard Terra's voice, but stopped mid sentence.

"What's going on out he-!" I heard Alice's voice too, but also stopped mid sentence.

I opened my eyes to meet a glowing pair of violet eyes staring back at me.

END OF CHAPTER 14

PLS CRITISIZE!

Is there too much dialogue?

Next chapter will be a .5 chapter not a real chapter. So no Ander yet.

PLS give your thoughts. And next time don't skip chapters.


	15. Update 15: Fatal Misunderstanding

Chapter 15: Fatal Misunderstanding

Once I opened my eyes to find 2 magnificent bright violet eyes glaring back at me with murderous intent. The girl in front of me had a calm cute face under dark copper brown bangs and her long hair loosely flowing with streaks of violet up to her waist. She wore black clothing from top to bottom, she wore a slender long sleeves sweater like jacket covering her neck and wore a miniskirt with knee socks and shoes. On her back was a scabbard with a sword lodged in it, seems she had good fighting experience. Though I was in this sort of situation I cant help, but admire her beauty. Then I noticed a violet particle float at the edge of my vision and soon realizing she was surrounded by them. Don't tell me this girl is...

"Ander!" Alice exclaimed.

So this is Ander! If that's true then she's an Endermen. Endermen are known in minecraft as one of the most strongest mobs as well as one of the most feared., towering 4 blocks tall in game they could cut down your health complete in just a matter of seconds even with armor. They could teleport over long distances and if being attacked wouldn't be able to see them coming. They are provoked through attack or the mere fact that you look at their eyes, I would have diamond armor whenever I'd face them or at the very least iron armor, but as of now I'm totally exposed!

"Don't worry everyone I'll take care of this human." Ander said in a stiff tone.

"No, Wait!" Terra said, but was unheard.

She aimed her fist and launched it towards me. I instantly kicked her away and quickly ran to the side, when I turned around to face her she was gone. I had no time to even look around to see where she was before I was hit again.

I rolled over behind me and landed on my chest, she appeared a meter away from me. These attacks are way too fast, faster than Lilith's speed, but since she's an Enderman, that would mean that she's using teleportation to hit me. I was about to get up, but she didn't let me and hit me at my stomach and launched me towards a tree trunk and struck my back. I could feel the pain surging through out my body.

I was coughing and hacking at the pain as I slowly tried to get up. I took a glimpse of my HP. My HP has already reached the yellow zone!? Is she using her sword? No I don't have any cuts and she hasn't even unsheathe the sword behind her, that would mean she was punching and kicking me this whole time! What monstrous strength, even I couldn't compare! If I haven't been equally grinding my physical attributes my HP would be lower! I looked in front of me and she was there watching me.

Through the pain I slowly got on my feet. She gave of an amazed expression as she saw I could still stand after her powerful attacks.

"So, you could still stand after that? I'm impressed, most humans would have already lost consciousness by now." Ander said with disgusted eyes.

I had no words to reply, I was taking heavy breaths holding my stomach region.

Her expression turned more annoyed as she finally unsheathe her sword and narrowed her eyes filled with bloodlust and disappeared with violet particles in her place. My eyes widened and quickly rolled over to the side, and Ander appeared in blinding speed with her sword thrust through the tree's trunk in my place. I quickly ran while keeping sight of her, she pulled her sword out of the tree's trunk and turned towards me, and disappeared.

The moment I saw her disappear I quickly sidestepped, it seemed she lunged at me as she skid a few inches in front of me. I dodged the attack, but I wasn't unscathed, it seems she was able to make a deep wound on my arm. She then swung her sword towards me, dodged, but teleported behind me. Thankfully it was only the edge of her sword that cut through, though it was only the edge it was none the less painful.

"Ah!" I said as the sharp pain flowed. I leaped in front of me to make some distance and turned to face her.

"Your avoiding my teleportation attacks quite well, I wonder how long you'll last." Ander praised me sarcastically.

"Wait! Please let me explain! I don't mean to do any harm!" I said with my hands waving frantically.

"I've heard that statement too many times, humans use it as a final attempt to escape punishment, but that doesn't work on me." Ander said with an unforgiving expression.

"No just listen! I've been here for the past 3 weeks and-" I said, but was cut off before I could finish...

"So your a stalker! You perverted human I'll kill you!" Ander yelled. Another misunderstanding...

"T-That's not what I'm saying!" I said trying to correct her, but it didn't seem she was in the mood to listen to me.

"Shut up! I don't need to hear anymore from you!" Ander shouted and teleported.

Negotiating doesn't seem to be working, I have to get away from this area before she whittles down the last of my HP! But, how?! She disappeared again. Then a I heard a familiar voice...

"Zach! Catch!" Alice shouted and through me a sword. I then began to see Ander's sword appear through the violet particles coming from the right, before her sword could pierce my chest I caught the sword Alice threw at me and deflected the swords path. Once her full image could be scene I quickly slashed my sword, but I underestimated her, not only were her strength and abilities superb, but so was her reflexes and only escaped with a small cut on her cheek.

"Tch!" She clicked her and made another slash towards me, I parried it and soon we were engaged in a sword fight, but this fight was too one sided.

I continued endure her barrage and fight, but I wasn't making a scratch on her. Every chance I would decisive hit, she would instantly teleport behind me or at a distance my sword cant reach before even coming into contact. The situation was getting dire, I have to use my skills! She raised her sword about to make a swing when I activated my skill [Sweeping Arc]. I swung my sword in a wide arc (NOTE: Does not need to say skill to activate it, maybe for magic, but not for physical attack skills) in an attempt to incapacitate her, but she just teleported and before I could even react she was already behind me. I rolled forward to avoid the sword's edge and turned back to make a upper diagonal swing, she dodged it and made another diagonal swing while my sword was still in motion (), her expression changed before she blocked. It flung her back a few feet from where she was standing and quickly advanced. I made consecutive swings all which were all parried, blocked or evaded, that just shows how much battle experience she has, compared to the others she is the strongest, on my last attack I attempted to initiate another skill [Precision strike].

[Precision strike]

[A thrust strike which can lunge the user at mid range. If successful it would be a full critical hit, if aimed at a critical point it would do much more damage.]

[LvL: 5 +35 Attack]

[Cost: 20 STA]

[Note: A full critical hit will only happen with a direct hit, if it is not a direct hit the damage will be higher than an average attack, but will be lessened from its original damage. Depending on the defense of the opponent the damage may also be lessened.]

It's an effective skill, but as it says it has its counterparts, I must issue a direct hit else it wouldn't do any good against her, I lunged and thrust my sword. She quickly sidestepped, I didn't hit her directly, but I was able to make a cut on her dominant arm. Her HP decreased to some extent, but it didn't leave the green zone.

When she was about to swing I leaped back in order to avoid it. I couldn't tell how much damage I did, but it seems to do a good amount, as she was holding her shoulder with her free hand at the place I cut. I was glad that I was able to finally hit her, but there was something wrong, she didn't teleport the whole time during the sword fight, and before this she was easily teleporting to evade all my attacks so why didn't she use it? I took a closer look at her state and it turned out she was breathing heavily, that must be why, she's exhausted. If they have HP and MP that means they would have stamina as well, but that didn't seem to be the right answer. Her MP was lower than 50 percent. So that would mean her teleportation consumes MP. If so then it must be a skill, since the system counts them as players as well probably excluding 5 million players, if so then their skills also follow the system as well being that the more one continuously uses a skill the more it strengthens. So just how long could she have been using that skill? But that too in itself is a weakness, but her movements seem to be getting slower...Ah! This may only be a speculation, but according to some novels and shows concerning magic it seems to use one's mental energy in order to cast spells, if one would run low of magic then one could possibly end being fatigued and possibly even faint.

The skill probably works with the distance the user would want to go and also the motion. During the fight before this, before teleporting she would prepare a certain motion and once teleported stays in that motion, which probably means she cant change her action during teleportation, but again this too is just a speculation. It slowly rising it was almost at 50 percent. I took a look at my HP Gauge.

HP was at its last life, I was gasping taking in deep breaths to recover whatever I had left, I looked at my HP gauge and it was slowly rejuvenating, my full HP at the moment was at 2000HP currently it was at 326 HP and was slowly rising bit by bit, I was puzzled, but now was not the time to study the game's mechanic's. Even if it was rising it wouldn't make a difference to the strength of person in front of me. I then hatched a plan if this plan doesn't work then I'll be dead... all I could do was smile. Ander noticed me and narrowed her eyes as if annoyed.

"You, what are you smiling about?" Ander asked with a stiff tone.

"Nothing in particular." I said smirking.

Ander's eyes narrowed with a changed expression, possibly thinking I had a plan but she didn't expect what happened next. I dashed into the forest behind me. I didn't look back and kept on running into the woods.

(Back at the House)

""""""Eh?..."""""" They all said with blank expressions.

"Hey! Come back here you coward! I'm going to go after him!" Ander shouted as Zach ran full speed into the forest.

"Ander just wait!" Terra shouted at Ander.

Ander as if not hearing anything immediately teleported away from them into the forest.

"And...She's gone..." Christia said as the violet particles slowly disappear from Ander's position.

"Gosh! She's always like this being so over protective! I know we made her leader, but cant she just listen to us before fighting!" Lilith said annoyed scratching her head.

"Oh, no. We have to follow them before Ander really does kill him!" Alice exclaimed.

"Right we have to save him!" Terra exclaimed as well and was about to head straight first into the forest, but Alice pulled her back.

"No, Terra you stay here there's no telling what could happen if you come with us." Alice said.

"But, Big brother and Big sister are..." Terra said tilting her head down with tears welling up in her eyes. Alice did not hesitate as she knew that someday once she is the queen she must face more faces such as Terra's with far more dear situations that will depend on her. As such she kneeled to Terra's eye level and answered her worries...

"We'll bring them back in one piece, for now we need you to be strong. If anything happens when were gone we wont be here to help you, we need you." Alice said with a calm tone and gently smiled to ease her.

"Hrmm, Okay..." Terra said tilting her head back up to wipe her tears.

"Terra, Levi, Sherry. The 3 of you stay here." Alice ordered with a stern voice and all 3 of them nodded.

"Alright we'll be back! C'mon Lilith!" Alice shouted and ran after in Zach's direction. The last 3 people standing there after watching their friends run into the forest stared blankly. All was silent, but was interrupted by a rather soft voice...

"Um...Terra who is that...?" Sherry asked pulling on Terra.

"Oh, um its a long story..." Terra said scratching her head.

(Back to Zach)

I was panting, I was running in to the forest aimlessly trying to get Ander to follow me. Not stopping for anything I soon found a small clearing in the woods. I then stopped running to catch my breath, and soon enough as soon as I heard the sound of her teleportation, I immediately looked back up, and standing a 20 feet away from me was Ander. I looked at her MP Gauge and there was barely any left, she probably used it up trying to catch me. I looked at my HP Gauge and saw that it has reached 502 HP. Good with this I could at least put one more fight. Her eyes looked at me with disgust as she watched me then said...

"How did you know?" Ander said breaking the silence between us. I looked at her raising an eyebrow.

"About what?" I responded back.

"About my magic, you knew that my teleportation requires magic to use isn't that why you made me chase you to use it up?" Ander said in a calm tone.

I've been found out, she's smart. I'm not surprised though, from this battle I could tell that she could easily see through me.

"You obviously knew I was low on magic as well, what I want to know is how you knew?" Ander asked.

"I'm just special..." I said giving of a wry smile. Ander became even more annoyed.

"Tsk, don't underestimate me! Even with out my magic I could still fight! You may be "special", but no matter how much of that you think you are wont change the outcome of this battle." Ander said pointing her sword at me. I'm guessing she gets angry at those who don't take things seriously, no wonder Lilith is scared of her.

She's acting just like Levi when I first met her, well its to be expected this whole time this person was living on the thought that all humans are monsters. Well maybe if this plan works I could perhaps make some kind of explanation.

"But, before this. Could I say something first?" I said placing my hand up.

"What is it?" Ander asked me lowering her sword a bit.

"When this battle is over could we have a talk?" I requested with a calm voice.

"What?" Ander said puzzled by my request.

"I know you believe that all humans are dangerous against mobs, but could you perhaps here my side of the story when this is done? Ander?" I said stating her name in a rather calm tone. She looked at me surprised with widened eyes, but then came to a resolution

"Fine, but only if you live. " Ander said gripping her sword.

"Thank you." I said making a smile. I closed my eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath...

I made my stance and gripped my sword tighter and narrowed my sights. Ander dashed towards me with phenomenal speed and cleared the distance easily. She swung her sword at me and I quickly parried.

This strength is abnormal! This cant even compare with the mobs I've been facing! But I have to survive long enough to prove myself, well if I can prove myself... We began changing blows with one another, sparks could be seen flying of the edges of our swords. I was able to make a few cuts which contributed little damage making it only reach the tip of yellow zone, for me it was the opposite my HP was going down as if it made no difference. I avoided most of them from hitting me, but it was obvious which one of us was stronger.

She was pushing me back into a tough spot, I leaped back and soon slumped over using my sword to support myself. I was taking heavy breaths trying to not loose consciousness, I looked back at her MP Gauge, her MP bar was at 20 percent, depending on the distance I could possibly make her teleport and with the right timing I should be able to... should I use my third skill? It takes high stamina which I don't know how much I actually have, but that's the least of my problems, I have to try!

Ander dashed at me, I quickly placed my sword up to block her slash. Our swords locked with one another.

"Grr...!" Ander grinded her teeth and pushed me back a few feet.

"Tsk!" I clicked my tongue and skid on the ground with one knee and one hand to break the momentum. I faced my head down with the shadow of my hair covering the expression on my face.

"You put up a good fight, but this is the end for you, human" Ander said in a stiff tone

After I stopped I saw Ander charging at me at full speed, her expression seemed determined she would win, she seemed too determined however, she lowered her guard. I heard her footsteps lightly dashing on the grass at immeasurable speed, once she was close enough my eyes widened and delivered my skill's payload.

"Dead center!" I shouted placing all my force into my next swing.

Dead center, is the third skill of the one handed sword skill tree, it was unlocked after my skill reached level 70. It was a skill that comprised of a 3 hit combo, the first two attacks were turned into a cross slash (X) while the last was a thrust towards the opponent. The first two slashes are meant to do heavy damage and the last thrust does less damage, but gives a defense debuff.

(Hear is what it would look like if you want to know)

[Dead Center]

[Its a skill made of 3 attacks, 2 slashes and a thrust. If successful the 2 slashes deal high damage while the thrust gives the opponent a defense debuff]

[LvL 3]

[+ 60 Attack]

[-15% Defense on successful thrust]

[Duration: 3 min ]

[Cost: 80 STA]

I made a rising diagonal swing, Ander's expression changed, but it was too late she was caught in my skills attack range and couldn't avoid it. After the first slash was made a second slash was issued forming the cross-like formation.

"Arrgh!" Ander shouted in pain as her HP decreases. I was about to issue the final thrust, but she teleported away from me. I immediately swung my sword in a wide arc to my right to perform [Sweeping Arc]. She was about to attack, but did not anticipate my skill, her eyes widened and her expression worried.

"Chi!" She clicked her tongue and leaped back, but it didn't matter after the arc came my final skill [Precision Strike].

I placed all my killing intent into my sword and lunged forward positioning my sword straight for her head.

Ander's eyes became dots as she realized her death, in the last second I snapped out of my trance my eyes widened and before I could thrust the sword forward I was able to redirect it a few inches away from her head, but the force of lunge of the skill was still in motion and soon fell on top of Ander.

"Ah...!" I said in surprise just realizing what was about to happen.

Her expression then changed to a much more surprised expression, but wasn't able to react from the shock. The momentum made Ander lose her balance and slip, we both fell towards the slope behind. Beneath the slope was a large deep man sized hole, which both of us were falling towards it.

""UWOOAAHH!"" We both screamed as we fell through...

End of Chapter

Everyone I forgot to place a small piece of info which I have just updated, and that is a new skill Zach has. Now the way this world works is that you can get a skill by basically doing anything, so when I reread chapter 14 the part where he kicks the hobgoblin. I had to insert it in.

I know, I know, I am a bad author because I don't think of these things ahead of time and only realize them after I post...

SPOILER: Ecchi scene next chapter... I'm not perverted... to some extent... just trust me. NO H!


	16. Update 16: Life saving First Kiss!

Chapter 16: My life saving First kiss?!

As we descended through the depths of the hole I saw a rippling shreds of light reflecting on the surface beneath us, it was water... Both of us fell in to the deep pool of water, once the water slowed down my the impact I immediately swam up to the surface for air. I gasped as I stuck my head out the water with my eyes closed. I wanted to know if Ander was alright...

"Ander, Are you alright?" I asked, but there was no answer...

"Ander?" I called out, only silence answered, I wiped the water of my face and immediately looked around.

"Ander!" I called out her name one more time.

I was wondering where she was desperately looking around my surroundings, when I looked beneath me my eyes widened. A shadow of black was sinking through the pool reaching out for the surface, I knew who it was instantly. Its Ander, she's about to drown! I forgot she's an Enderman! Her window popped up and the HP was slowly depleting! I had to save her before her HP drops to zero.

I dived back into the water and swam through it, as I swam deeper I could feel the water's pressure pressing on me, my vision became blurry, but I could still see Ander's figure. When I came closer the blur on her image was slowly fading, but didn't disappear. The blurry image of her arms stopped moving and bubbles came out of her mouth, she was losing consciousness. C'mon I have to hurry before she drowns! I swam even faster.

I was finally reached and grasped her hand and pulled her up, I wrapped one arm around her torso to hold her. After I secured my grasp I began to pull and kick the water while I was pulling on Ander. I swam towards the surface of the water, trying to hold my breath. I could feel my throat constricting itself and my face dyed in red from the lack of oxygen. Once the pressure was being lifted I desperately pulled the water stronger while kicking beneath, our heads burst out the surface. I gasped for air, but when I took a look at Ander she wasn't breathing.

"Oh no...!" I cried and immediately swam towards the rocky edge of the cavern's ground and pulled her up. I removed my wet Jacket and used it as a pillow as so she would hit the rough surface of the stone. I looked at her window...

Ander's window

Race: Enderman Status: Uncontracted, Oxygen deprived, Aqua burn

Gender: Female

HP: 29%

MP: 10%

(BTW I'm using percentage as an estimate because Zach cant see the exact numbers.)

Her HP and MP aren't in a good shape! There were added statuses, Oxygen deprived and aqua burn. Her HP was decreasing very slowly, it must be due to her statuses. If this is due to the water then I have to take her clothes of fast!

I immediately zipped of her coat of which revealed her black miniskirt underneath. Her body lines were beginning to form through the wet clothing. What am I doing!? I cant distracted now! I shook my head and began removing Ander's mini-skirt out fit. Once I took it of my cheeks began to grow red with the sight in front of me. Both her bra and her underwear were both black, to think the game could generate characters with such beautiful forms, unlike Alice or Lilith her breasts were totally balanced with her body! But if I were to go on then...!

NO GET YOUR HEAD TOGETHER! A violent voice shouted in me. I slapped my face with both my hands.

PAK! "Ow!" I said as my cheeks continued to redden from my slap. I cant be thinking about stuff like that now, what kind of person would I be if I actually did that?!

I quickly looked at her statuses. It seems that her Aqua burn status was lessening (HAHAHA, Nope no naked scene...yet. Maybe, IDK I made him 18 sooo...), but her HP was still decreasing! It must be from being de-oxygenated. My cheeks flushed again as I knew what had to be done, I had to do CPR! But I'm not experienced in that at all, I took a look back at her HP was at 19%! I cant be hesitating now! I placed my hands on her chest and a soft sensation came into contact, her breasts are so soft! C'mon not now! I began to press down on her chest multiple times, it didn't seem like her condition was getting any better. 16% Shit! Do I have to do that!? I tilted her head up to straighten her neck and opened her mouth. Here goes nothing! I took a deep breath before placing my mouth on hers and blew in. I continued to do mouth to mouth while watching her HP and alternated between pressing and breathing. It was at 10%!

"C'mon Ander wake up!" I shouted as I continued to press on her chest.

On the final breathe her eyes finally began to slit open while I was doing mouth to mouth. Her eyes immediately widened at me and her cheeks flustered, a punch from below then came rising and blew me of place. I landed on the rocky surface on my back, damn even at this state her strength is not to be taken lightly!

"What do you think your do-!" Ander was about to complete her sentence, but she began to cough out water.

"H-Hey! Are you alright!?" I said approaching her.

"Y-Yeah I-" Ander said, her face began to redden as soon as she sees her semi clothed body.

"Gh!? Where are my clothes?!" Ander shouted in surprise and glared back at me with bloodlust.

"Uh...um...!" I said hesitating to respond.

"You Pervert! You better have not done anything to my bo-! Ah!" Ander said and tried to stretch her arm, but her expression changed and made her hold her under arm. It must be from the aqua burn.

"You, must rest. You don't have a lot of HP left! You were suffering from something called Aqua burn so I took your wet clothes of." I told her.

Ander had no words to respond and stared at me while holding her body, I checked her statuses it seems most of the aqua burn was gone and her HP was already beginning to heal.

"Ah! Ow..." Ander said and fell back over. I came closer to her as she was on the ground rubbing her sides.

"Here, Let me give you a hand." I said giving her a hand and a smile. Her cheeks grew slightly red as she took my hand, I pulled her and led her to a tall rock with a smooth surface. Ander grinded her teeth, seems the Aqua burn is still in effect. Once one of my clothes dry I'll use it as a rag to dry whatever's left. I laid her down in a sitting position, my cheeks grew a slight red at her appearance.

"I-I'm going to get our clothes to dry them of!" I said.

I ran back to get our clothes, wrung the water out in to the pool and let them dry where the sunlight is overextended to the ground. It looked like were in a sort of cavern, there were stalagmites hanging from the top of the cavern dripping water, everything was dark, the only light that could be seen was coming from the opening of the hole we fell in. I looked back at Ander who had her head down, Her HP was healing normally, but it seems her MP was increasing much slower.

I took some of my other wet clothes of to dry only leaving my underwear. I then saw 2 glints of light reflecting below the surface of the water. It was our swords seems they sunk to the bottom, it seems that if you let go of your equipment the system also considers it as an unequipped item. I took a deep breath and jumped back into the water after them, I swam deep into the water and got a hold of both of the swords and a window appeared.

[Dual Sword Wielding Skill Unlocked!]

Dual? Does that mean I can use two weapons now? Is it that easy to get a skill? Well I'll take a look later. You would imagine that holding two metal swords in both hands would feel heavy but I guess it's thanks to my strength stat that I can carry both easily especially underwater. I however raised an eyebrow concerning the light blue hued sword, compared to the iron sword in my other hand this one felt heavier. I placed both into my inventory and continued to swim upwards. Once I came up, I approached Ander who was resting.

"What are you doing?" Ander asked me raising an eyebrow. I came up the water and opened my inventory. I took out the light bluish hued sword. She looked at me with an amazed expression. A window appeared.

Steel broad sword

\+ 12-16 DMG

Range: Short

Status: Sharp

Weight: 350

Durability: 421

Description:

High-carbon steel forged into a broad sword

Steel? There's steel now? I wonder how one would make this, compared to the original game steel never existed, but if steel is here then there must be a whole new classification of metal to the game along with minerals. Things are getting more complicated, but that's never been a problem for me, complicated is just how I like RPG's...wish most of them were before I came.

"This must be yours right?" I said handing the sword towards her.

"Y-Yes..." Ander said.

She takes her sword back and placed it on the ground. I looked at her HP, it seemed to be at a good extent. I guess I could relax for a bit then

"Um, I'll be sitting over here." I said pointing to a spot near her. (At this point I cannot give description' s of Ander's look and expressions)

I took a seat down on the ground on a position facing my back towards her. There was a brief moment of silence between us for about 10 minutes. I began to look through my windows to pass some time.

HP: 1833

MP: 150

STR: 85

END: 82

AGI: 87

INT: 5

KNL: 5

WIS: 5

Well I guess my stats have been steadily increasing at a good rate. Since I knew that stats could be increased through everyday actions I concluded the only way to increase it would be to exercise, after I would do my daily chores with Alice, Lilith and Terra, I would train myself.

Running laps increases Agility, any type of physical strain from exercise or being hit increases Endurance and hitting anything whether it being living or nonliving will slowly increase Strength, though attacking enemies does increases much more.

I also finally understood how HP was increased, exercise. Exercise also increases HP, though I don't exactly know how to accurately gain it, since the amount is different every time. I'm guessing since this world is also partially real life it's a random chance or a mound depending how frequent I exercise and how intense it is. This is probably because unlike MP which is the mind, HP can be increased as such and probably why tank classes in RPG's have more HP than MP.

I even do some solo hunting on my own and found some good-ish items, well the area is still at common rank- uncommon rank, you cant solo higher level areas unless a player's stats are enough, plus Terra and the others already scold me for going out solo in the first place what more of a much more dangerous place.

The skill as well if practiced and used frequently it gives a small bonus to level it up, but again its better when there's an opponent. This games system doesn't give rewards to those who have just talent, but offers some of the best rewards to those that work hard and build up skill. I could also feel my stamina has increased as well, I didn't faint after I used consecutive skills, but how though? Eve I am going to bombard you with questions when you come back. I also want to learn about magic, the quickest way would be to ask Ander, but she doesn't seem to be in the mood right now so I'll ask later.

(Take that MMORPG's that are based around items and cash!)

"Um, I don't think I got your name." Ander said in a soft voice.

"Its Zach." I said to her while not turning towards her.

"Zach, My name is Ander." Ander said.

"I know, the others told me about you." I said to her. I didn't see her, but it seemed her expression changed when I mention the others.

"T-They did?! What did they say?" Ander asked. What should I say... Well I shouldn't tell her about her bad habits at this point.

"They said that your a good leader, that your strong and caring." I said to her.

"I-I see." Ander said reassuring herself

"Why are you sitting with your back towards me?" Ander said unfazed by our situation. Does she not know?

"You do know that you are in your underwear correct?" I said.

"N-Nevermind!" Ander exclaimed.

A moment of silence came between us for a few seconds before we began to speak again. Then a familiar voice echoed through the cavern.

"Hey! Are you two down there?" Lilith called out. My eyes widened at the sound of her voice

"Lilith!" Both of us shouted.

"Thank goodness, we found you two! I see water down there, is Ander alright?!" Alice exclaimed. As of now she doesn't seem to be in a good state.

"She's fine, but you should come back with some healing supplies."

"Alright, we'll be back!" Alice called out.

There voices left the area and silence filled the atmosphere again. It was only me and Ander again, should I say something to her? Why does the world have to put me in situations like this?! (Because the plot demands it!)

"They seem to trust you..." Ander said softly.

"I-I've been with them for two months after all..." I said to her.

"I-I see..." Ander said.

Another few seconds of silence

"Um, Zach,I promised you that we could talk if you lived. You wanted to explain some things to me."

"Oh, right I forgot about that. Where should I start?" I said.

I then told her what has happened in the past 2 months. Ander obediently listened to me as I explained, she asked me a lot of questions, I tried my best to answer all of them. She got mad at me when I told her that I went hunting with Alice and Lilith, Alice did mention she was protective, so its natural.

"I-I am very sorry! I didn't know." Ander exclaimed.

"N-No its alright. I was expecting our meeting to be like this, but I didn't predict you would be this strong. I'm sorry that were both here." I said.

"That's because I'm always out fighting and protecting everyone from danger. Your pretty strong yourself actually, I almost died." Ander said.

"Again I'm very sorry, but I guess that's why your the leader." I said in an apologetic tone.

"Yeah, but there's a difference between strength and leadership, Alice could probably do a better job." Ander said.

Recalling... I remembered an event on the first week. Yeah, not so much.

"Alice has...a long way to go..." I said.

"Hm?" Ander said in a puzzled tone.

Better not tell her of those moments. More importantly I'm curious as to why she was away.

"Never mind, where did you go?" I asked her.

"Oh, I had to take one of our members for a check up." Ander said. Check up? As in a medical check up?. I said raising an eyebrow.

Now I'm even more curious, wait their other member is a zombie right? could it be for her? I may be wrong.

"Check up? Who? and for what exactly?" I asked.

"You should know one of our other members is a zombie right? Well she technically isn't called a zombie, she's an infected." Ander said.

Ah. So it was for her, but infected?

"Infected?" I said with a puzzled tone.

"Infected are humans who have traces of the plague within them. They're disease isn't able to be transmitted or infected to others, but in the human city they are basically counted as mobs and discarded from society. Zombies are the corrupt versions of infected which they become sooner or later and can only be transmitted through them." Ander explained.

"There are corrupted versions of mobs?" I said puzzled.

So those mobs still exist, guess it wouldn't be Minecraft without them after all.

"Yeah, corrupted mobs are born through unstable magic, once that goes rampant they turn to corrupted. That is why humans classify and discriminate us by our corrupted names rather than our actual race names. Its actually quite easy to control it, but this race is an exception, its not dependent on magic its dependent on the plague and how fast it turns, its like a natural occurrence for the ones born to this race that they will turn to corrupted. If one doesn't turn then they will most probably die in they're mid adulthood." Ander said in a solemn tone.

Its understandable, common zombie logic. I actually feel sympathy for those who are born to being infected So she must have taken her to slow it down then right?

"Then the reason why you were out was to slow down the process? How is she?" I asked.

"As of now she's fine, they said she would turn at a much older age. Your quite sharp. All in all I almost mistook you for an enderman with all the white clothing you were wearing."

"White? You mean black right?" I said. Ander then gasped and began to make weird noises. I turned around to face her.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"O-Oh right I'm sorry, all endermen are born to be color blind so the colors interchange one another... uuu I made the same mistake again.." Ander said covering her face.

Its not surprising, in the game when a player is in spectator mode they could see through the eyes of mobs, when it comes to the enderman all the colors switch. Its a nice touch of detail, but being color blind must sucks.

"W-Well besides that, Your eyes look beautiful as they are so, there's no need to be embarrassed about it." I said turning my head away with slight heat on my cheeks.

What did I say?!

At the same time I looked behind me, Ander also blushed and looked away. There was a moment of silence for a few seconds between us.

"T-That's the first time anyone has said that to me...You, really are different aren't you." Ander said.

"I guess, you could say that." I said.

"That's probably why you..." Ander said and her voice became even more stuttered as she hid her face.

I remembered, she was probably thinking the mouth to mouth from a while ago

"I-I'm sorry! For uh...!" I said stuttering as heat began to gather on my cheeks.

"I-Its alright! I understand! You saved my life after all!" Ander exclaimed.

"O-Oh Okay..." I said reassuring myself.

Silence filled the atmosphere between us again.

"I, Ah-" We both said.

Maybe I should let her talk first.

"You go first-" We both said.

"No you go-" We both said again.

I turned around, when our eyes met we both blushed and looked away again.

Both of us were so awkward with one another it was hard to tell which one of us is more awkward. It's not too bad though, I actually felt more comfortable talking to Ander than most of the people I have met in my life. I don't know, the others always said I was just like her, was this what they were implying? But we were able to get another decent conversation...

"By the way, how did you know that my teleportation used magic?" Ander asked.

"Adventurers have a sort of appraisal skill (Windows) that could see the basic information like health and magic of any living thing. Once I saw your magic drop after you teleport, I was able to create a decent strategy." I said.

"Strategy, I guess I wouldn't understand since all I do is attack enemies indiscriminately, the others get annoyed by my overprotective attitude." Ander said.

"Its only natural, I would have probably done the same in your place. Speaking of the others, how long do you think they'll get back? It's been at least 30 minutes right?" I said.

"I don't know, but you did run at a long distance at remarkable speed, I actually had to make a few stops to regenerate my magic. Oh, and our clothes should probably be dry now." Ander said.

Right our clothes! I forgot about them, I don't want to talk to her while looking like this the whole time.

"Ah, right! I'll go get them." I said.

"Okay." Ander said.

I ran towards our clothes and picked them up, upon closer inspection, there were cuts and tears on multiple places, was it from our fight a while ago?

Black Jacket

Status: Tattered

Default clothes of: Zach

Just that? No stats? When I think about it, this was my original skin before coming to this world and in minecraft, your skin even if you design it to have clothes is just skin with out any effect on the stats. It was the same for all my clothes, for Ander the status was the same, but the description was sew from black thread. I used my inventory and equip my clothes back on, I took a glimpse of Ander who had an amazed expression on her face. I approached to where she was and gave her clothes while trying not to look at her. She ran behind the rock and began to wear her clothes, when she was finished she came back from behind the rocks. We began to speculate plans to escape the cavern. Even though we knew that Alice and Lilith were coming back, if we stay down here any longer something may happen to the others and as of now, in this group we are the only fighters who are the most experienced, if someone with a good amount of fighting experience were to come by or a powerful monster they wouldn't be able to put up a good fight.

"Could you possibly teleport up there?" I asked pointing to the top.

"It's worth a try, but I can only teleport on places I could see. I cant see the edge of the hole, so I cant make an exact destination of my teleportation, I'll only be standing on air. I could make a consecutive teleportation, but at this distance I'd be using to much magic, I don't think I can make another after." Ander explained.

So it works as I have theorized, if she cant get out of here through teleportation, guess we'll have to wait for Lilith and Alice to get back.

"Is that so? Hmmm..." I said with my hand stroking my chin.

I opened my inventory to see if I have anything I could use, I actually had a bunch of items. In the rummage I found a stone pickaxe. Must be one of the scrap weapons from the monsters. Right this was a habit of mine I always leave stuff like this in my inventory just in case, it's good for situations like this, but items now carry weight even inside the inventory, if I don't correct this it will slow me down in combat. I wonder why I haven't noticed it, ah right it must be due to my stats, which one though. Whatever I figure it out later.

"I have a pickaxe maybe we can use these to dig out." I said with my pickaxe in hand.

"Good idea, do you have a spare?" Ander asked.

"Yeah, their not in good shape, but nothing we can't use." I said.

I gave one of the makeshift pick axes and we began to pick at the walls of the cavern. After about another hour the pick axes broke

"Well..." I said staring at the broken pick and tossing it aside.

"Guess we won't be getting out any time soon." Ander said. She threw hers aside as well.

When I looked under us and there was a pile of minerals. I picked one up thinking it was stone, but it was lime stone. I decided pick them up one by one and place them in my inventory, once I felt heavy I stopped.

There were others like bronze ore, iron ore, lead and other minerals, I was right, there were other minerals now. Most of them are from the periodic table, did they make this Minecraft with the basis of the earth? They did say they were trying to make this world as real as the real one, I wonder what else they copied? When they dropped of the wall it would be in small pieces, but in a large quantities.

"Is there something wrong? You seem to have a serious expression." Ander said worried.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just examining the minerals, most of them are similar to my world so I wanted to examine them, but I don't really have a clue as to what to use them for." I said.

"Right, you came from another world. We could probably ask one of the smiths back at Nara to help you make something out of it." Ander said.

Speaking of smiths...

"Ah, Thanks. Speaking of which, who made your sword? I appraised it and it said it was a steel sword." I asked.

"This? One of the smiths made one for me at a reasonable price, though it's a good sword, I was hoping for something with much more weight in to it." Ander said holding her sword.

Well I guess its my time to gather info, better ask while I can.

"I forgot to ask you, how do you use magic?" I asked.

"I-" Ander said, but was cut short to the sound of bubbling. Both of us looked towards the pool.

We then heard bubbling coming from the pool, it began to ripple more intensely. Both of us held our breath at what came out, it was a 20-30 foot long snake like creature with a webbed parts on its head making it look like a frilled lizard spanning 2 feet in body length covered in Dark blue scales. It raises itself up towering ten feet in height. Both of us stood breathless as it slithered out of the pool to raise its head.

End of Chapter 16

NO H!...yet?


	17. Update 17: Cavern Chaos

Chapter 17: Cavern Chaos

"There was a serpent here?!" Ander exclaimed.

"A serpent?" I said with a question mark hanging over my head.

A window popped up

Serpent

LvL: 30

Race: Animal

Type: Reptile

Rank: Rare

HP: Full

30?! I'm only level 20! To me and my level this would technically count as a mid-level boss! I took a look at Ander's status windows it seems our HP is halved, but MP is full, she could fight using her teleportation then. Despite that considering the level its most probably past the 1000 HP margin, this is going to get tricky. Wait... if this monster was here the whole time then shouldn't it have appeared the second we fell in? What triggered it? I began to look around, nothing seemed out of the ordinary...

"I guess this was my fault..." Ander said.

"What?" I said puzzled.

"I threw my broken pickaxe into the water..." Ander said guiltily.

Ah, that explains it, but that doesn't matter now. We brought out our swords and brandished them towards the serpent.

"Lets talk after." Ander said holding her sword in front of her.

"Yeah, anything you want to tell me before we fight?" I said keeping my eyes at our enemy.

"Though it looks big, it could make short burst of high agility attacks, it cant however continue attacking at the same speed for long periods of time. Be careful of the head, teeth and tail, but if you get the chance to strike its head go for it! The scales that cover its body are a bit tough to get through, but nothing that cant be cut. If it begins to surround you, get out before it coils around you. Lastly, what ever you do don't go into the water, its much faster there than up here. You have a strategy?" Ander said looking at me expectantly

"According to my appraisal ability its level is much higher than me, I don't know if you knew this, but the level of monsters determines its stats. Now I don't know your level or if you even have levels, but I know your stronger than I am. I want you to distract it for about a minute while I issue a skill that lowers attack speed, once that's finish, we attack with all we got." I said.

(I changed the debuff. This isn't a rapier so it wouldn't make sense if it decreased defense so I changed it to speed)

"Got it." Ander said

The serpent hissed and bared its fangs before lunging towards us. Both of us immediately jumped out of its way and began to attack its body, Ander was teleported to a part of the serpent's body and made a hard slash, the serpent began to hiss in pain as it tried to counter, but no matter how it attacked it couldn't catch up with Ander's speed. I began using my skills to do heavy damage to its body as Ander took most of its attention, I used all my skills in succession with one another, with [Dead Center] first to lower defense, next using [Precision strike] and [Sweeping arc] both did high damage thanks to [Dead Center]'s debuff, the only skill that did not work as intended was [Sweeping Arc], I'm guessing that it was too big an enemy for the skill to stun. It feels weird that I'm not fatigued or passed out for using this much stamina, but I shouldn't be worrying about that.

"Ander!" I shouted.

As soon as I called out she used her teleportation to her utmost ability, grid lines began to appear on the serpents body as it tried to catch up with its burst of acceleration, but none reached Ander. I watched as I continued our assault on the serpent's body, it snapped it's jaws tree times at Ander, I counted 7 seconds in between strikes, though Ander not knowing this avoided its attacks flawlessly. I took a look at its HP and we were only able to cut down 10 percent. I turned to Ander Teleporting and avoiding attacks, her MP was below 50 percent, her movements as well are beginning to slow down. Damn this thing sturdy! We'll only decrease its HP by 15-20 percent at this rate before Ander runs out of MP.

"Ander you running low on magic! Don't use teleport so much, you'll run out at this rate!" I said in a worried tone.

"I know! But I could still do a few more teleports!" Ander said.

"No, your attack speed and agility is getting lower each time you use teleportation. I'll buy you some time to regain magic." I said standing in front of her.

"Alright, I could regenerate magic fast, give me two minutes. By that time use your skill again." Ander said.

"Got it." I said.

Ander immediately leaped away from the serpents attack range. The serpent faced me and snapped its jaws at me. I rolled to the side and got back on my feet to issue a slash at its neck, but it retracted its head faster than I could slash. It seems 3 minutes is up its agility is rising, it continued its accelerated assault. It began to hiss and used its hulking tail as a whip, I avoided by a hair by sliding under the thin space beneath it. When I came back up its head began to charge at me, I quickly got on my feet and issued [Sweeping Arc]. Both of us took a partial amount of damage from each of our attacks, I took deep breaths while holding my sword, the serpent then began to attack me again.

"Ander!" I called.

I rolled out of the way and below the serpents extended neck appeared Ander and slashed its neck in time before its jaws reached me. I used my opportunity to use [Dead Center]. I kneeled down on one knee covering the part I was hit. Ander teleported to me.

"Zach!" Ander shouted.

"I'm fine" I said gritting my teeth.

Another attack came from the serpent, but it was much slower I counted 12 second intervals per attack, we both avoided it and attacked while being conscious, but then increased to 7 seconds after a 5 minutes. So the consecutive bursts is its skill, but intern for such speed it's next attacks after become much slower. Regular attack intervals with [Dead Center]'s debuff are 7, during skill cooldown it's 12 seconds and when using its skill 5. So it has a weakness, a fatally grave one at that, but its scales get through with our full attacks.

"Ander! Give it all you have after it attacks us with its accelerated attacks! After it does it becomes slower!" I said.

"I'll keep in mind!" Ander said.

After another two minutes it struck us again with its accelerated speed. Once it was over I did my usual succession of skill barrages on its body. Once I issued my skill we continued to press on the serpent with attacks and brought it's HP down by 20 percent during its cooldown. Now its at 50 percent left. We both got together taking deep breaths holding our swords in front of us. The serpent was actually able to land a few hits on us, our HP is currently slowly regenerating, I cant tell how much stamina I have to use my other skills.

"This is getting tough, how are you holding up?" I asked.

"Not good, I don't think we'll last much longer." Ander responded with a serious expression.

"Alice and Lilith are coming back, we need to hold out until then, I just hope they bring some equipment with them." I said.

I hope they bring some combat equipment else were done for! The serpent charged at us again, we jumped to the side and charged towards the serpents body. We began to fight again, avoiding the attacks, but we got careless and was hit by the tail as well as Ander

"Tsk! Guh!" I said as I was hurled away from my position.

"Zach! AH!" Ander said before she was hit by the serpent's scaly tail.

Both of us were flung to different sides of the cavern. The serpent used its burst of speed to surround me. Shit! I'm trapped! I began to hack and slash, but then the serpent used another burst to coil around me like python would with its tail. My limbs were completely immobile, I saw my HP slowly depleting with every squeeze the serpent would give, with its jaws arched over my head. I was about to get swallowed whole, Ander was on all fours trying to get up, but failed. I turned back to the serpents head above me preparing to swallow, but before it could an arrow aimed towards its head was fired once it reached me close enough I heard a small sizzling sound.

Boom! The arrow exploded on contact, the serpent began to lose its hold on me and shook its head violently. It dropped me on the ground, I began to cough. I turned towards its origin and a familiar face came into view. It was Alice, she continued to fire exploding arrows at the serpent, Lilith then came in front of me.

"Yo. Sorry were late!" Lilith said with one eye closed and a smile.

"Am I glad to see you. Go to Ander she was just hit a few moments ago, do you have potions by chance?" I said.

"Yeah, here. I'll attend to Ander." Lilith said and handed me a potion.

In a few moments she cut down the distance between me and Ander and handed her a potion. I got back on my feet and drank the potion in hand, I felt my strength coming back, my HP continued to rise at a faster rate. Alice halted her shots and ran towards me.

"Zach! Are you alright?!" Alice called.

"I am now. What were you firing? Don't tell me you were hiding a skill." I asked in a curious tone.

"N-No! Its just arrows strapped with explosives." Alice reacted and showed one of her arrows strapped with dynamite on them.

"Why did you bring explosives?" I asked in a worried tone.

"The plan was to blow both of you out." Alice said ever so casually. Blow us out? Really? Out of all the plans...

"You know were in a cave right! If you did that we would be buried alive! Alice you are a failure as a leader." I said in a sarcastic and annoyed tone.

"Awawa!? Why do you need to say that?!" Alice exclaimed with her cheeks becoming red from my comment.

Then Ander and Lilith appeared beside me.

"Ander are you alright?" I asked.

When our eyes met, Ander blushed and looked towards the side.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Ander said averting her eyes away from mine.

"What's this? A new development perhaps?" Lilith said with her usual grin.

"Shut up." We both said to her.

"Alright so Zach, what's the plan?" Alice asked.

I look back at the serpent its hissing shaking its head violently, its HP was at 40 percent, how sturdy. Wait, What's that? There was something added to it's statuses, an icon appeared with a broken shield. A defense debuff? Was it from the TNT? An idea hatched in my mind as well as a grin.

"Zach? You seem to be making a weird smile..." Ander said worried.

"I know that look. What strategy will it be this time?" Alice said and formed a smile as well.

"That's his "Strategy smile" Lilith said trying to make a joke out of it. Well I don't really know what my face looks like whenever I do make this sort of smile so I cant really tell if its creepy or not, and what did Lilith just call it? Strategy smile? What kind of naming is that?

"Ah, did I do that? Sorry. Alice how many more sticks of TNT do you have?" I said apologizing and turning to Alice.

"We've got a lot." Alice said and lifted up a long line of TNT sticks.

TNT sticks.

\+ 50- 100 DMG

Range: Adaptable

AOE: Wide

\- 20% Defense if used for combat

Description:

An explosive device made to do a large amount of damage in a wide area

"What do you have in mind." Ander asked me.

"I want to end this quickly, so here's the plan..." I said and began to explain our strategy.

After I explained the plan, the serpent then regained itself from it's disoriented state and began hissing at us again. Me, Ander and Lilith began to charge at the serpent while Alice gave us cover fire. Another one of the TNT arrows exploded on the serpent's head, I issued [Dead Center] lowering it's speed, Ander began to attack using her teleports with high damage attacks, Lilith made high speed attacks not even the serpent was able to keep up, as for me I continued to observe the battle while issuing speedy strikes, as well as heavy attack damage from my skills. The serpent snapped its jaws at me using acceleration again, this time I was able to counter and slashed its snout, it hissed in pain and raised its head to the height of the cavern.

"Lilith! Alice!" I shouted.

"Yes!" Both of them immediately responded and began to issue our plan.

In the next second, using her speed she dashed to the serpent's eye level and dropped a line of TNT on the serpent's head and stuck a landing on the ground.

"Later, hehe" Lilith said with her mischievous look.

Before it reached its head, Alice fired a lit arrow and sparked the string connected to the TNT. Then...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...

A line of explosions were lit, the cavern began to shake as each of the sticks of TNT exploded. The serpent began to hiss and its body movements became erratic, as soon as all the sticks exploded the serpent had it's head down swaying from side to side. It seemed we have canceled the other two accelerated attacks of its skill and stunned it for a brief moment. It's HP slid down to 30 percent, the plan worked perfectly. This stun was just a bonus. I instinctively cracked a smile, this was a sort of habit whenever I feel in control when a strategy works. It's time to kick up the DPS!

(Should I drop some glasses on? Guess the anime reference.)

"Now! Everyone, attack with all you've got!" I shouted

"Yes!" Everyone responded.

All of us charged and attacked at the serpent, it's HP was rapidly decreasing with every hit we make, after a few minutes the serpent regained it's senses and began to attack us again, the serpents HP was at 15 percent. All of us did our best to avoid the serpent's attacks while pressing on the serpent's HP. Suddenly the serpent backed up, grids were all over it's body and so are ash marks from the explosions, it seemed to have a reluctant expression on its face for attacking us. However I'm not letting this battle end with a half baked ending.

"Let's finish this." I said.

At my word, all of us made a final assault at the serpent. Both Ander and Lilith used their abilities to the utmost delivering swift blows on the serpent's body slash marks continued to accumulate, its speed fell with every hit taken. I was initiating skills one after another and placing heavy blows, explosive shots and arrow quivers continued to pierce at the serpent's scales lowering it's defense to fatal ratings, and in a final attempt out of desperation it lunged straight at Alice.

"Oh no!" Lilith cried

"Alice!" Ander shouted.

Shit! Is her Aggro to high? Probably due to shooting explosive arrows, I've got to do something quick!

The hind of it's tail was towards me, I dashed onto it and ran down the serpent's body, I brandished my sword, the final second before the serpent made contact I jump up and released all my power into my next strike. I made a downward slash at the Serpent's head.

"Kyaa!" Alice screamed.

The strike's strength seemed to be greater than I suspected, the serpent's head plummeted straight to the ground shattering it to bits. I fell to the ground and did a roll to lessen the impact, I landed on my chest and began to take heavy breaths. A window appeared.

[Skill was earned by doing a certain action!]

[Power Strike unlocked!]

[One-handed Sword Skill has increased by 7!]

Another skill? Two skills in one day, huh not bad. But certain action? First was the [Kick skill] I got after kicking the hobgoblin 3 weeks ago, to get the [Dual sword wielding skill] all I needed to do was hold two swords in both hands, and now after making a powerful strike I get this? If I'm correct then the system could count any action and turn it into a skill if ever, though there are no requirements for the said skill to be unlockable. Since this is through a certain action, that would mean it's not apart of the skill tree, an automatic skill creation system, I should probably try to make some of my own skills then to expand my skill list.

(Time to make some magic)

"Zach! Are you alright?!" Ander called and teleported to my spot. She gave and I gladly took it. I got back on my feet and walked towards the rest of the group.

"Y-Yeah, some what..." I said holding my chest.

"T-Thank you Zach! I'm sorry I burdened you again..." Alice exclaimed with her head tilted down.

"Well you couldn't have done anything, don't be so hard on yourself."

"Y-Yes." Alice said slightly blushing with her head tilted down.

"It seems he filled your role in quite well, Ander." Lilith said with her arm over Ander's shoulder.

"M-My role!? What was that supposed to mean?!" Ander exclaimed and began to whine.

"Well, during the first day... and this day... and this day..." Lilith began to explain the events that I didn't mention that transpired during her trip and concluded that her role was like a stubborn overprotective serious mother or older sister and that I filled in that role while she was gone.

"How does that represent my role! Is that how you all see me?!" Ander exclaimed as her face reddened.

"Pretty much..." Alice also agreed.

"uuuu... I'm sorry for causing you trouble!" Ander exclaimed and began to apologize.

"Calm down, its fine that's why were still here and we wouldn't have followed you if we didn't like you." Lilith said then gave of a smile.

"That, reassures me..." Ander said with a sigh and her hand positioned at her chest.

"By the way you were really strong! I've never seen you fought like that before!" Lilith exclaimed.

"T-Thanks." Ander said as her cheeks began to grow red.

"You too Zach, your getting better quite fast! And that strategy was amazing! In terms of ability none of us intend to lose, but, how did you know your strategy would work?" Lilith exclaimed in a casual manner.

(Duh, because he's the MC? Some one is bound to say this while reading so I'll put it up for them.)

"Yeah, For a second I thought we were toast." Alice remarked in amazement as well. It took me a few moments to be able to respond.

"In the face of over whelming power one could only depend on their skill and strategy, whenever I make a strategy half of it is an assured victory and the other half is a gamble." I said.

"A gamble?" They all said simultaneously.

"In times like this not even I'm sure whether or not a strategy would lead to victory and could very well be changed in the course of battle that's why I call it a gamble, but even if it is a gamble that was what I have decided so therefore I must stick to it to the very end while believing in the ability of the people around me. That is what I think." I said.

They all looked at each other, they each began to smile and let out faint sighs and giggles.

"W-What's is it?"

"Nothing, but to hear something humble like that after witnessing something amazing make it seem that your a bit too serious. Its nice to know that you believe in us and we too believe in you as well, but you should really stop worrying about us so much. I could tell that most of the things you do is for us and to protect us, much like Ander and that you put serious effort into it. I don't know what reason it may be, but you always seem to be burdened by something, its nice to put your effort in these sorts of things, but you need to learn to loosen up a bit every once in a while." Alice said with a smile.

"Y-Yeah, sure I'll try." I said stuttering with my head downcast towards the ground. I look at the others and they smiled all I could do was smile back, their expressions seem to agree. I thought only Terra was capable of worrying this much about me, guess not. I'll have to follow up on their expectations as well.

I heard a faint hissing sound coming from behind us. It seemed that the serpent was still alive, its HP was at 1%, wont this snake just die? I let out a sigh and began to walk towards it with my sword in hand, I think I've repeated this scene too many times, to the monster's I basically look like an executioner. I know that this monster has feelings and it was probably attacking us of its own instinct, but if I let this monster live it may come back for me in the future for revenge, though I highly doubt that I don't want to take any chances. The others watched me silently as I raised my sword, but before I could make the blow, the serpent made a drastic move towards the water. My sword struck the ground and the serpent entered the water. I let out a sigh.

"I guess we should let this one g-" I was about to say but...

Before I was going to call for quits Alice fired five arrows in the water.

"I don't think any of them hit." I said looking in to the water.

"No I made sure that these arrows would." Alice said with assurance.

"What makes you so su-" I said before I was interrupted by explosions.

Five loud blasts echoed beneath the pool and sent the water upwards creating a huge splash that over flowed the in to the cavern beneath our feet. Like so the serpent's dead body came up as well floating on the pool's surface. This is dynamite fishing if I recall.

"We could have just let it go..." I said slowly as I saw the serpent's body floating on the pool.

"I know, but if we let it live it will only remember and grow stronger, plus being decisive and protecting others is what being a leader is about, isn't that what you thought me?" Alice said casually

Thought you? What exactly did I teach you? Sigh... All I could do was rub her head and after let go.

"What was that for?" Alice said rubbing the position my hand was.

"Nothing I just felt like it." I said, Alice's cheeks began to grow a slight red before she averted her gaze.

"So how are we going to get out? To be frank how did you two even get in safely?" I asked.

"You didn't notice but while you were fighting I carried Alice down here, she was so heavy." Lilith said in a sarcastic manner.

"I-I'm not that fat!" Alice exclaimed.

"Besides that, Terra should be there on to-" Lilith said before being interrupted.

We began to hear rocks crumbling and shaking on the surface of the cavern's walls. A hold was made and the face that came out was Terra's.

"Is everyone alright! I heard explosions so I- Big brother!" Terra exclaimed and jumped towards me.

"T-Terra!" I said stuttering before Terra's face plummeted into my chest.

"I was so worried, I though you would die by big sister's hand." Terra said shedding tears. So she was this worried huh? I guess this was a fault on my part, I've got to compensate.

"Don't worry I'm right here, everything is fine now." I said giving of a gentle smile and slowly rubbing her head. She rubbed her face on the surface of my clothes to dry her tears and looked back up to me, I smiled at her for her assurance and she smiled back. It seems this case was resolved nicely. It took Terra a few seconds before her grip loosened and let go of my jacket. The silence of the caver was interrupted by Ander.

"Terra, why are you calling Zach big brother?" Ander asked pointing a finger towards me.

"Well, uh..." Terra said and began to blush.

"Let's talk about that later, for now lets get out of here." I quickly intervened. I don't want to explain that event down here.

"Fine we'll talk on the way, lets grab the serpent's body and go." Ander ordered.

"Yes!" Everyone else said.

We all started climbing of out of the hole Terra made for us as well as dragging out the serpent's body. We continued to chat on our way home, Ander kept on reacting to almost every new fact that was told by the others that I did not tell her while we were together and at some point scolded me, it wasn't to bad everybody seemed to be having a good time and that was all I cared about. When we reached the house and left the serpent's body outside and inside awaited a brand new face.

END OF CHAPTER 17

(BTW for the last chapter, I forgot to mention that those stats Zach had were without using the attribute points given through level up. He should have 60 points to spend now.)

PLS CRITISIZE!


	18. Update 18: The whole group is here

Update 18: The whole group is here

We finally came back to the house carrying the serpent's body. The body was actually quite huge, we had to cut it up into pieces before coming out of the cavern. We didn't harvest it because none of us had enough skill to be able to harvest the serpent's body without making errors, I hope it doesn't go bad or disperse while were inside.

We left it out at the back of the house, when we came inside Christia, Levi and another girl sitting on couch. Christia came to greet us with her usual cheery attitude.

"Ah, Your ba- What happened to you!?" Christia exclaimed as she saw our clothes and armor in their tattered and torn state.

"Nothing much, just some group bonding." I said scratching my head.

Christia looked at the others, each of them began smiling and slightly giggling at my remark while Ander was slowly averting her gaze and scratching her cheek. Christia then approached Ander...

"Your clothes and armor tell a different story, here let me help you!" Christia exclaimed and tried to take of Ander's torn jacket.

"I-Its alright!" Ander exclaimed. Christia let go of her jacket.

"Did anything happen while we were gone?" Ander asked.

"Nothing much..." Christia said.

Christia began to start talking, I looked at the other two who were seated.

Levi though had the same sharp look as soon as she saw me, nothing different about that.

Though the other girl beside her had her head downcast towards the floor, she seemed to be in deep thought. This must be their Zom- I mean infected member.

I was quite surprised and had my eyes glued to her the second I got in, but the moment she saw me she hid behind Levi holding her shoulders while covering her face and began to shudder. Levi didn't seem irritated by this unlike most of the actions that I've seen rather I felt that the atmosphere around them was quite sentimental, well both of them had went through some tough times I guess she can relate to her.

"Uhm..." I said nervously.

I wanted to say something to her, but what am I supposed to say? She looked back at me with silence. The awkward atmosphere was slowly coming back, but was broken by Lilith's voice.

"Ah, it seems that she's still scared, so I'll introduce you to her. Zach, this is Sherry, she is our "Infected" member. Sherry, this is Zach, he is a human." Ander said.

A window popped up.

HP: Full

MP: Full

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Status: Infected, Uncontracted.

Her race, it's still human. So infected is not a race, but instead its a status. But I don't understand, how can they be treated like mobs? I mean, according to Ander, they cant spread the plague only zombie's can. They'll turn, but that's years into their future. This world is probably has some screwed laws, but what right do I have? I've only been here for 2 months.

Still silence was her only answer she seemed to continue shuddering as she saw me, but Levi placed her hand over hers and she stopped.

"Its alright, he's not as bad as he looks." Levi said.

It was one of the few times that Levi actually said something good about me, but...

"So far..." Levi said with her sharp gaze.

It never actually last more than a mere second.

"A-Ah y-yes I'm sorry!" Sherry said

She then stood up and bowed to me.

"N-No its fine." I said.

I waved my hand to reassure her and raised her self to look at me.

Sherry had a cute complexion with an innocent look attached to it on her face, she was about the same height as Levi, had long green hair and wore a skirt outfit, if anybody saw her she would be considered an age of a ten year old. The first word that appeared on my mind the second I saw her was well, cute. Like really cute, everyone here in our group is either cute or beautiful most notably Alice, Lilith and Ander, while the cute appearances fall on Terra, Levi and Christia...well Ander is both sooo... Never mind. (not because their short of height, also Ander is actually almost the same height as Zach, she's and Ender man but do they need to be that tall?)

If I were to compare them in terms of cuteness then this girl would rank first easily.

"M-My name is Sherry! P-Pleased to meet you!" Sherry said stuttering.

She seems really nervous, but she's still afraid of me.

"Ah... My name is Zach, pleased to meet you as well." I said.

She continued to talk to me stuttering almost every word that came out of her mouth, so this is the extent of her fear.

"I-I'm a-afraid of humans, b-but T-Terra told me about you a-and said y-you were a nice person a-and-" Sherry said stuttering.

Ander then kneeled down to her height and held her shoulders.

"Calm down Sherry, I know your still afraid of humans, but Zach is different, so please relax." Ander said in a calm voice.

"Y-Yes!..." Sherry answered.

I'm glad Ander was able to reassure her. Well she was the one most protected under her so I guess its normal.

"You guys should probably change, we should talk after you freshen up." Christia said.

"Ah, okay." I said.

Everyone including me who had just returned went down the hatch and took a change of clothes, I bought some clothes in the last 3 weeks because Alice became a fashion police and scolded me of how I always wore black as my main color, so I bought some clothes with the money we shared, nothing fancy just regular shirts from the local tailor and not a lot, Alice wasn't surprised as most of the clothes that I bought were either black or very dark colored all she could do was place her hand on her face and sigh. Hey, I just like the color black.

We all returned up stairs after a change of clothes and took a seat in the living room.

"Alright so to start of Sherry, Zach could you both introduce yourselves properly." Alice said.

"M-My name is Sherry, I'm 14 years old, uh I-I'm an infected, I join Ander and the rest because I-I'm afraid of humans and s-so I could be safe... I'm not used to being this close to humans, but Terra and everyone else said that your a nice person and that you have saved their lives, so uh... I hope we could get along!" Sherry said.

She was stuttering less now, at least she knows that she shouldn't be afraid of me.

"My name is Zach, I'm 18 and a human, I joined the group 3 weeks ago when you and Ander were away, I'm also from another world and have no idea about this world so I joined because I need to learn more about this world." I said.

"Are you sure it wasn't because of Terra?"

Terra turned to Lilith with red cheeks punching her arm.

"Lilith!" Terra exclaimed.

"Okay, Okay just joking." Lilith said covering the part Terra punched.

"Now that's out of the way, now that these 2 are back should we continue with our usual schedule today?" Lilith asked.

"Ah, Alice I wasn't here so what have you guys been doing? I heard from Zach that you were hunting corrupted to earn more money, how much did you make?" Ander asked.

"Wait, I'll be back." Alice said.

Alice went back down to fetch our funds. She insisted that she should take care of it because its practice for when she becomes a ruler to manage funds. She is actually doing a better job than we thought though, well her main job along with hunting was segregating funds and keeping count of them. It sounds easier said than done, but the currency in this world isn't as simple as just "gold". Gold was the standard currency, however if I know anything there isn't an economy in any world not even this artificial world that would be able to house this much gold and distribute them to the populace as currency.

I found out when I was checking the pieces myself, the color and sizes were off and when I asked, the currency was gold, but the pieces are not made of it, it was called gold due to their shiny and golden exterior and design but was made from a metal alloy which they don't know. I got worried once I found out on the second week that we may have been getting tricked, but according to Terra everything was fine as she was the one who would handle business in Nara.

She explained to me how the currency work, it split into different sizes each with their own different values and design on it, starting from 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 then 1000. I didn't know how much 1 gold piece was equivalent to what a dollar was back when I used to live in America or any other country it seemed to reflect how the old world's currency would work, just without any bills.

Besides that our, funds were steadily building up at a good rate from trading mob parts as well as selling other miscellaneous items like herbs and other natural resources, the mob parts were the most valuable of the bunch, one basic harvest from a goblin would equivalent to at least 100 gold! Not sure if that's a big value in this world regarding to currency depending on the salaries of other regular jobs, but I think that it is a lot.

Alice then came back up carrying 3 bags the sounds of metal within each made it clear that each of the bags have a lot of money.. She laid them out on the table releasing the rope covering the mouth of the bag and a golden lights poured out from each. All of us except for Ander and Sherry have seen this much already so we weren't surprised, however the two who had just arrived widened their eyes with sparkles in each one their pupils at the sight as though they have not seen this amount before.

"Y-You were able to make this much while I was away?! How much is there!" Ander said stuttering a bit.

"Each of the big bags have 10,000." Alice said holding her head high.

The look she gave made it seem as though she has seen larger, well she has been dealing with the funds so its only expected.

"30,000!" Ander exclaimed.

Wait, wasn't there... oh right the rest were with me. I brought out the other bag from my inventory.

"Ah, right forgot about this, we were supposed to spend 10,000 today."

"40,000!" Ander exclaimed.

I was also surprised about how much we've earned when I checked with Alice yesterday, so I thought it was about time to get some new equipment, we didn't buy new equipment since the mobs in this area were manageable to us, of course I am speaking of the common and uncommon as well as a few rares and most of them were Level 15-20 mobs so we just stuck to our regular weapons. Plus I was not sure about their stats or levels so depending on which piece of equipment I may buy it may detriment them and if I bought myself strong equipment I might leave the others behind, I hope that there's a way to read them sometime in the future

I'm starting to re-think my decision from a few weeks ago , we need start buying new equipment or start learning how to craft them, because all we have been focusing these last three weeks were fighting and raising our skills and funds.

I don't know how strong they were before I got here, but now they're plenty strong or at least on par, well not all stats though since Lilith's speed is faster and Ander's strength and endurance are also higher than mine, Alice though its not measured her accuracy is top-notch! They have their set backs, but there aren't any classes that I have seen yet so they could improve their weaknesses if they kept on going.

"We were only able to make 1,000-5,000 gold when I was here!" Ander exclaimed.

"That's because you restrict us from fighting, were stronger now you know." Lilith said with a bitter tone.

"Y-Yeah I saw. Sorry for underestimating all of you." Ander said in an apologetic tone

"Its fine, we have been discussing that we were going to use the money to buy some new equipment, which Terra and Zach were about to do before you came back."

"Oh, right. If were going to get new equipment, you guys should probably come along too to fit the size of your new equipment."

"Not a lot of us have been to the village, only Terra has, if we go wont we be..." Alice said with a bitter expression on her face as well as Lilith.

Their worried about getting discriminated, the chief of the village doesn't mind and has also set a rule in the village that mobs are not to be blindly discriminated or treated badly, most of the people living there, as well as the soldiers are also cool with it. What I'm worried about is Etrina and the one's outside of the village, if anything happens things may get ugly.

"Don't worry. We've already talked it out with the chief before and Terra has been going frequently so I don't think the residence would mind if we were to go. But if anyone says anything bad about us I'll kill them." Ander said with a dark atmosphere surrounding her with her sword in hand.

"Ander~" Everyone said with annoyed tone.

"Ah, sorry! Its a habit!" Ander apologized frantically waving her hand and putting away her steel sword.

"She's right, actually most of the people there can't really differentiate between humans and mobs since most of the races have similar appearances, even if they can tell we'll be there to back you up if anything go wrong." I said giving a gentle smile to reassure them.

"O-okay." Alice said and smiled back and changed back to her expression at the start of our meeting.

"Going of topic, um what should we do with the serpent's body? Right now none of us have enough skill in harvesting to be able to get the quality and materials we want out of its body, but we cant just leave it there to rot and waste good materials." Alice said.

During my time in this world every time we defeat a mob it wont automatically disperse in to dust it actually rots for first, I don't know how long before it would disperse but larger creatures would take a longer time with it, but rotting is also an issue.

The more we let it rot the more the materials in the serpent will go bad, other consequences that have occurred during rotting is that it would attract other predators or mobs to feed on the corpse and according to some people in the village a plague or a disease may break out, and if its larger it has a higher chance of it happening, God I don't want this go to waste!

I began pondering on an idea with my hand stroking my chin. I thought of an idea...

"We could probably find someone in Nara who could harvest it for us and just pay them in return. If not we could all try to harvest one particular piece at a time so we should get a higher chance rather than alone, but I still want to avoid that."

"Alright, other than that... Zach, what happened before we rescued you?" Lilith asked with her usual grin on her face.

"Yeah, Yeah. I'm also curious did anything happen down there?" Christia also asked.

Everyone except for Sherry had sharp eyes pointed towards us with glinting. Me and Ander immediately broke out in cold sweat as we remembered what happened between us down there.

"UUUUHHH..." I said averting my eyes in another direction.

"N-Not really..." Ander said and did the same.

Both our cheeks grew red, and Lilith's grin became even wider.

"Oh? Really?" Lilith said teasingly.

"YES!" We both exclaimed.

"Fine, fine I'll stop." Lilith said giving up.

I felt a slight tug on my sleeve, I turned and it was Ander with her face bright red. She then went to closer to my ear and whispered.

"Zach, lets... not tell anybody about our k-..." Ander whispered.

"Y-You don't need to say it. I understand." I whispered to her.

If word gets out that me and Ander kissed then its gonna cause trouble within our group, I don't want them saying were in a relationship or anything.

We began discussing about expenses on different things such as food, equipment, tools and ate our meals for another hour. Levi stayed quiet or blurted out something irrelevant or just to complain as usual, Sherry didn't really talk as much either, when she did she would stutter and when I try to talk to her she would stutter even more, guess this is going to take time for her to get used to. Everyone else including me was active during our talks and discussions. During that time I felt that after these first 3 weeks I could really talk to them clearly and everyone had a good time, except for Levi, I don't know if her attitude showed having a good time or not.

After all that, we departed from the house at 1 in the afternoon...

"We'll be going now. Christia watch the house for us till we get back." Ander said.

"Roger." Christia said with a smile and a salute.

"Lets get the body and move out." I said.

We took the parts of the body we placed outside and placed some cloth over each of the cut pieces as well as the head so that it would avoid people from seeing it or possibly if ever robbing it from us. I highly doubt that people will steal it from us, but this is Minecraft, robbing and raiding are actions that are very common so its better we be cautious.

We departed towards the village and soon reached the entrance. Sam came to greet us as usual.

"Oh! Terra! Zach! I was worried when you didn't come this morning." Sam exclaimed.

"Nice to see you too Sam." I said.

He then looked behind us to see the 3 women following us. Sam began to blush as he saw them and pulled me down by my neck. He began to whisper to me...

"Oy, Zach. Why are there so many beauties following you? Are you perhaps two timing Terra?" Sam said with his eyes full of curiosity.

"What?! First of all, who said anything about me and Terra being together! And also NO! I am not doing that!" I exclaimed. Sam's expression changed to a sort of "Oh" expression and took a glance at the girls before speaking to me again.

"I thought you knew, rumor is that you and Terra are in a sort of relationship y'know" Sam said smirking at me.

What?! Jesus Christ! I swear...I gave out sigh before I spoke again.

"Well correct them for me will you? Also I want to talk to you about something, you know that Terra is a "monster" right?" I said whispering to him.

"Yeah, I heard from Dad when she came and that she also had some friends, waaait... Are they...?" Sam said with a changed expression

"Yeah..." I said.

"Oh, I see." Sam said.

He let go of me and looked back at everyone else.

"I just heard from Zach the situation. Well, if that's the case then none of you have to worry about being discriminated, the residence here don't really mind. If anybody outside find's out and causes trouble they'll have to deal with my Dad. Your our guests after all."

"Ah, Thank you, uh..." Ander said then paused as she didn't know Sam's name yet.

"Sam." Sam said and smiled.

"Sam, thank you." Ander said slightly bowing her head.

"And, you all are...?" Sam asked directing it to them.

"Ander" "Lilith" "Alice" Each of them said their name and slightly bowed.

"Nice to meet you. What's under the cloth by the way?" Sam asked pointing to the object in my hands.

"Ah, about that... This was the reason why we were late, but..." I said hesitant to pull the cloth off

"Oh, c'mon. Its not like I'm gonna do anything with it." Sam said.

"Fine, but you guys better not tell anybody..."

"You heard that guys?" Sam shouted to the other guys.

"Yeah, we heard you!" The rest of them shouted back.

With me reassured I unveiled the cloth revealing the serpent's head. Sam's eyes widened as well as the rest of the men on guard at the snake head and looked back at me astonished.

"Tha- You killed a... serpent...!" Sam said stuttering and switching glances from me to the serpent's head.

"Not me, us." I said.

"Damn you guys are tough, what'cha gonna do with it?" Sam said scratching his head.

"Anyways you know the town better than us so I was hoping you could show us a good harvester and smith." I said.

"Ah, I know just the person, follow me." Sam said.

"Sam NO SLACKING!" One of the other guards shouted.

"It'll only take a minute." Sam said holding his hands up.

Whenever we ask Sam about some place we need to go to in the village, he always volunteers himself to lead us, when we ask his Dad the Chief as well as some of his buddies, he always caught slacking of somewhere trying to flirt with girls or something even I've seen some of them. He's not a bad person, he's just lazy.

"Ah, right. You got caught last time right? We could ask you later..." I said trying to persuade him.

"Nah, its fine. C'mon!" Sam said with a cheerful smile.

Well, if he wants to volunteer I cant do anything about.

"Alright then." I said.

We continued to follow Sam through the village, while we continued walking I heard the usual greeting from the residence and some others, but I felt eyes solely directed towards us most especially the 3 girls behind me, I could hear slight whispers among the crowd as we walked as well.

As expected the villagers also others are taking notice of our presence, though I don't feel any signs of malice in their gazes. I took another look around and saw some men growing red as they saw us as well as some women who were overwhelmed by the faces of girls behind me. They're having a bigger impact on the crowd than I thought, I need to be cautious.

I turned to the 3 behind me, Alice and Lilith were showing their usual smiles showing a good atmosphere around them attracting many more looks, while Ander too was giving a smile, but she too was being cautious looking around. Though after meeting Sam it seems she was more relaxed here despite already knowing that she is acquainted with the chief and the look in her eyes she showed me as if disgusted was diminished as well. I let out a sigh of relief and turned back in front.

We gathered more gazes as we walked, people walking stopped to watch as our group walked through the main street. Others wore expressions of envy directed at me, but were immediately put away as seeing the son of the Chief leading us, it seems he holds some influence in the village that I am truly grateful for meeting him. My attention was fully focused on the crowd I forgot to ask Sam where were going, though I trust him I still would want to know.

"Sam, where are you taking us?" I asked.

"Were going to the smith of course, you said you needed some one to harvest the beast your holding so the perfect people to do that are smiths. The smiths in our village are re-known for the best in the region and some are rumored to rival the best smiths in the city so your not gonna find another good one in a while if you searched outside the village. Plus I know some guys that would be interested in making some work off that rare beast." Sam said.

"Ah, thanks." I said.

"No problem we don't get many adventurers nowadays so everyone is interested in seeing what you could bring to our village, even I am a bit curious and it seems that everyone's expectations of you have been confirmed though they don't know yet." Sam said.

"R-Really?! Is that how I'm seen?" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, among the residence of Nara your quite popular, there are even some girls who are eyeing you." Sam said smirking at me.

"I-Is that so..." I said with my sight averted in another direction.

That was unexpected... I wasn't popular back in my old world so I didn't know how to react, can this be even considered popular? I don't really know, I haven't done anything of value, all I have been doing is making money that's all.

"But... It seems you have your hands full." Sam said casually turning his gaze over to the girls behind me. The 3 girls behind me except Lilith began to blush.

"W-What is that supposed to mean!" Alice exclaimed.

"None of us have-!" Ander exclaimed then immediately averted her gaze.

"Zach is my big brother!" Terra exclaimed.

"Oh really?" Lilith said with a grin.

Fire began to appear in each of their eyes as they faced Lilith. Lilith flinched for a second with drops of cold sweat appearing even I was shuddered a bit.

Guess you took it too far Lilith, though I still don't know what exactly is she teasing them about. (D-D-D-Density)

"N-Never mind..." Lilith said stuttering.

After she said that the atmosphere died out, Lilith began scratching her head and letting out sigh's of relief.

"Y-Yeah." I said sighing.

God if only you knew Sam... Oh, there was something else I wanted to ask him.

"Right, um Sam. When we first met, how did you know I was an adventurer?" I asked.

Sam's expression changed to a more surprised one and began rubbing his nape.

"Ah, my apologies on that note, you see right now, you technically aren't an adventurer. Adventurer is treated as a job so therefore you have to apply to be one and that is at the guild, we don't have one here unfortunately. The reason why I addressed you as an Adventurer that day and why everyone else does as well was because you just had that sort of aura around you. Sorry for not telling you." Sam said.

So that's how it works, in some Japanese manga I read concerning RPG aspects before and also in some RPG's, one needs to be registered in through the guild to be an adventurer. So this would mean that adventurer is not what people in this world call us players, maybe they don't even know of us and think of us as human. I haven't encountered another player here so I wouldn't know what were called.

"Ah, I see. Its alright, so how do I get people to know that I am a real adventurer?" I asked.

"The only way for one to be seen as an adventurer is to have a sort of plate which justifies your ranking as an adventurer, that way you can accept quests suitable to your rank as one and probably earn more money than just harvesting the mobs in the forest. The nearest guild should be in Arilk City. You could find a guild branches in other cities besides that one too." Sam said.

"Thanks, I'll make plans for a visit." I said.

Sam's eyes widened at my response.

"A visit? You aren't going to stay there? I mean you can make way more money there than here." Sam said puzzled with my earlier response.

"Well..." I said hesitant to say what I wanted to say.

I turned around to look at the 4 girls following us. All of them turned their gazes at me and raised eyebrows and question marks. I took a deep breath before I could answer.

"I couldn't have made it this far if it hadn't been for Terra and the others, heck I'd probably be dead now. Everyday I'm with them I feel comfortable that I have a place to call home, something that I lost a long time ago. I mean there are some setbacks, but overall its fun being together with them and everyday is something I can look forward to. And honestly I cant just leave these girls behind." I said with slightly red cheeks.

I let out a sigh of relief. There I said it without flinching. I turned around and all of them had warm eyes towards me and red cheeks even Lilith had the same reaction.

My cheeks began to heat up as well, I immediately averted my eyes.

"Big Brother!" Terra cried and suddenly latched on to me. I looked at her and she honestly looked like she was about to cry, I turned to the others again and each of them were smiling and giggling at me.

"So that's what you think about us, Thank you." Alice said.

"You really are different from rest, Thanks." Ander said

My face blushed even more as they bombard me with thanks and compliments. Thankfully Lilith's voice broke them.

"Aw, so really can be sweet, I see now why everyone has falle-" Lilith said with her grin.

"LILITH!" They all shouted at her.

They began ganging up on Lilith and taking their rage on her. I was about to stop them but, Sam started to laugh at us.

"Hahahaha! I see, well then I wont pester you anymore." Sam laughed.

I let out a sigh. All I could do was smile at them as they argued and scolded Lilith. It really fun being with them. After a few minutes we continued to follow Sam.

Before we knew it we reached the area...

UPDATE CONCLUDED

PLS CRITISIZE


	19. Update 19: The Master Blacksmith

Update 19: The Master Blacksmith.

"And, here we are. Here I'll introduce you to person I know." Sam said.

The area we entered was a wide area filled with the smell of smoke from furnaces of the different stands and facilities and the clanking sound of clashing metal as well as roaring flames, each with their own blacksmith's each creating different works some swords, spears, shields etc. All of them were focused on their work sweating profusely, concentrated on their work each of them had a different expression on their faces but all showed the same determination.

I wonder who Sam is going to introduce us to?

We then stopped in front of a store. This store looked like a small house with a sign in front with a sign that says open, at the side was a stand with an anvil and furnace, but no one was there. Maybe inside? We opened the door and the bell of the door rung. I'm sure the owner should know we're here.

My eyes began to shine as soon as I saw the interior, there were equipment everywhere hanging on the wall, most of them are in great shape apparently. I began scanning the room's equipment and turned to one of the swords. It had a good feel and the design as well.

I wonder how much is one of these swords... well, we brought everything today so it shouldn't be a problem, but I don't want us to just blow all our funds on something so expensive.

"Hey Sam? Who are you introducing us to?" I said.

"Oh, he a man who's been here ever since this village was founded and is my Dad's personal friend, he's a master blacksmith who learned from the best he could probably harvest and put that serpent to good use." Sam said.

Master Blacksmith? Then maybe I could learn forging and metal working from who ever this person is. In Minecraft, the initial goal was to survive, so it obviously meant making weapons, and I for one was always interested in making the "Strongest Weapon and Equipment" possible back then, not just from regular Minecraft but also mods, excluding the gun mod.

In Minecraft I was always one to learn everything about it and explore new possibilities to them, back then it was more like a necessity, but now that this world is an RPG you wouldn't need to because it could be bought from a simple shop. However, Minecraft was built on the grounds of crafting, so it will still be a necessity for all players to learn how to craft, just more complicated...

Yeah... complicated, but I need to learn if I want to survive longer in this world especially since this is an RPG.

In RPG's if you cant craft, you already lost a big chunk of the game. RPG players know that you cant just rely on drops from mobs, if one would really want to speed through the game and get stronger quickly, the way would be crafting equipment from strong monsters, the difference now is just that its not just equipment anymore its everything.

A deep voice interrupted my train of thought and greeted us in complete surprise.

"Serpent! Where!" A voice responded to us.

Footsteps came out from a back door and out appeared an old man. This man had wrinkles and spots all over his face, white hair a beard and wore circular glasses. In my perspective he looks like a discount santa claus. He was a bit over 6 feet wearing a black apron over some brown clothing, it seemed to be a regular blacksmith's attire. Ah, blacksmith villagers now I know.

His gaze then turned to us and his expression changed to delight as soon as he saw Sam.

"Sammy boy, its been a while!" The old man said smiling.

"Uncle Alfred!" Sam said with a smile as well.

Both of them hugged and broke of.

"Hope yer not causin too much trouble out there." Alfred said.

"Wha!? Since when have I caused trouble?" Sam said acting surprised.

The old man let out a sigh then bonked him on the head with his fist.

"Ooow..." Sam said while holding his head.

"And that was for taking me swords last time." Alfred said with narrow eyes.

Both of them started talking about other things for a minute before turning back to introduce us.

"Why don't you tell me who you've brought to me shop." Alfred said.

"Uncle, this is Zach, Ander, Alice, Lilith and Terra." Sam said pointing to each of us.

"Zach? I heard that name a while back, heard you were busting mobs around here, I don' see a plate you aren't really a registered adventurer are ya?"

"Yeah, just found out." I said scratching my nape.

"Ah, its fine as long as you buy something before ya go." Alfred said.

He turned towards the girls and squinted his eyes while stroking his chin.

"You 4 are... Heteromorphic's, yes?" Alfred asked.

Heteromorphic? In biology it means to have 2 or more forms, its a fitting name considering that these girls can change into corrupted at a very low chanceexcept for Sherry. But, if he knows we are mobs, then we are in some trouble.

I immediately went in front of them spreading my arms to cover them and stared into the old man's eyes, but then I felt a tap on my shoulder, it was Ander shaking her head.

I guess it means to back down. I did what she said and the tenseness died out.

"Yes." Ander answered in a kind expression.

"I see, haven't seen one of yer kind in a while, anyways yer welcome in me shop." Alfred answered with a welcoming smile.

"Thank you." Ander said.

I slowly approached her and whispered to her.

"Hey, Ander. Why did you react like that when he called you heteromorphic, though I know the definition, are you really alright?" I said.

"Yeah, its fine. We were classified like this before even our races accepted the name, it doesn't sound good once you know what it means, but its better than being called a monster right? Only a few humans use this, because of the new king anointed to the throne in the human capital." Ander said.

Ah, so that's what they're called, but it was forgotten due to someone exchanging seats with the throne. That's some king.

"Sorry, for my behavior earlier." I said lowering my head.

"I understand, raise your head. I'm Alfred Baltrerick, Master Blacksmith." Alfred said.

I raised my head back up.

"Ah, nice to meet you Mister Baltrerick." I said.

"Just call me Alfred, I heard serpent just a bit ago, is that what I think it is under that cloth?" Alfred said pointing at the object in our hands.

"Oh, right. We were hoping that you could help us harvest this." I said.

I removed the cloth and revealed the serpents head, the others also removed their cloths revealing the other cut parts of the serpent, the other parts were stored in my inventory. Alfred's eyes widened with delight as though this was the first time he has ever seen a serpent.

"Ooooh, then ya came to the right place laddie! Come in here!" Alfred said waving his hand to come into the room.

He seems pretty excited, at least Sam showed us to a person who would be glad to work.

We followed him further into the shop to find a table with all sorts of tools which I could not identify without appraising them. The only one I could recognize was the harvesting knife, but the one he had, had a much more exquisite feeling to it, as expected of a master blacksmith and harvester he has better tools for harvesting than us. There was also a spare anvil here together with a furnace and all sorts of tools, benches as well as different types of weapons laid around or hanging on the wall.

So many tools... I was initially planning to ask him to teach me how to be a blacksmith, but this is going to be more complicated than I thought... Well this is the new Minecraft Infinitus after all, everything now is more complicated...

Place the pieces over here and I'll get to work!" Alfred said pointing to the table with his tools.

"Ah, Alright." I said.

We did as we were told and placed all the pieces on a table with his harvesting tools on them, guess I'll call it a harvesting bench, though I don't think I can call it a bench because when I walked around the village before, I would always see people, especially carpenters with this table of tools on them. It wasn't like the grid the regular crafting table had it was just a regular table with tools on them, they had to manually make there crafted parts without the help of the system and it was obvious to note that those tools didn't come with the table they were separate items from the table and could be removed any time.

If I have to purchase all these tools in installments to a crafting table as well as for forging... I think our expenses will skyrocket... unless I make them, I should try that sometime...

"Oh! This is one exquisite serpent ya brought me lad! Never seen anything like it!" Alfred said.

"By the way, I hate to ask while your excited, but..." I said hesitantly.

"The pay? Hm... Lessee here... hm, guess 350G per piece should be good enough."

"10 pieces...350G per piece...3500G! That much for harvesting?!" Alice exclaimed.

Since she was the one who manages funds its not surprising she would be the one to raise her voice. When you think about it 3500G is actually a fairly cheap price, I asked Sam before we got here about an average salary of a person in the village and he told me people at least earn 10-50G a day, with that much a person could book at least 2-3 nights at a cheap inn as well as pay for food expenses and other necessities, seems its worth more than I thought. However we are on a tight budget to be able to provide for all of us, so I wasn't sure about it either.

"Well, ya see here lassie, it was supposed to be cheaper since this was a lower tier Rare class mob, but ya brought me a large amount to work with." Alfred explained.

"Ah, I see I'm sorry for raising my voice..." Alice said.

Lower Tier? There are Tiers to different ranks? Well I guess it would be hard to distinguish prices and rarities if everyone just named them as such, better ask then...

" Lower Tier? I have no knowledge of that." I said.

"You don't know? Here, you could borrow this book about monsters." Alfred said and shuffled through a book shelf.

Alfred handed me an old book that had designs that looked like it was something valuable and would cost much. It had a huge title on the front that spelled [Monster Encyclopedia Vol.1]

Monster Encyclopedia

Status: Readable

Durability:

"N-No I cant possibly-" I said trying to hand him back the book.

"Keep it I have spares." Alfred said as he begins cutting open the serpent's body.

"T-Thank you." I said.

He started examining it, tearing and cutting apart parts of the serpent, like scales, meat and etc. Each of his cuts were so clean that once the meat touches his knife it immediately splits open and he butchered it and began taking out numerous parts out of one piece at an increased rate. He then turned back to us for a second.

"Oh, and Sam, shouldn't you be at the Gate?" Alfred said.

Sam's eyes became dots and sweat began to pour down.

"Ah- CRAAAP! I forgot! Sorry Zach! I have to run! Later!" Sam shouted.

Sam ran out the door back towards the gate. The old man let out a sigh.

"He's always causin trouble, that lad..." Alfred said letting out a smile.

He then turned to us.

"Anyways, I should be done by tomorrow so you could pick it up then-" Alfred said.

"Ah, hold that thought, do you perhaps do custom works?" I said interrupting him.

"Custom works eh? You mean to turn this hunk of meat and bones into equipment? Sure, I was hoping for ya to say so, something as interesting as this I cant pass up the chance! But we could discuss that tomorrow. As long as you bring in something I could use I'd be happy to." Alfred said.

(If you guys don't know the reference yet, its monster hunter)

"Speaking of which, I probably need more materials though, but I'll tell ya tomorrow." Alfred said.

More materials? I guess that's fine, we could probably hunt something in the forest or buy something here.

"Okay, in the mean time were here we were hoping to purchase some better gear as well." I said.

"Ah, then what's yer budget?" Alfred asked.

"10,000- 30,000G is what we agreed on." I said.

"Alright, tell me what kind of equipment will fit your battle style." Alfred said.

Most of us rely on speed to attack, Ander uses teleportation, but she's still fast without it as well, Lilith doesn't need a reason why she needs it, Alice, she would need light armor as well since she could get into some pretty close situations, me... all my physical stats are balanced so guess I'll go for light armor as well.

"All of us are either used to attacking fast or need to be quick so, light armor should do."

"Light armor eh? Ah, I've got another idea. I've examined the scales of the yer serpent, they over quite an amount of defense and is also very light, I can probably turn it into the armor you'd need." Alfred said holding up one of the dark blue scales.

"Ah, then-!" I said excitedly.

Everyone else behind me too was happy as well until...

"However, if I were to use all the scales I could only make one full set. Now, I can make the others some light armor as well from the materials I got here or sell ya some of me others, but it wont be as effective as the serpent armor, so you must decide which one of ya'll is gonna take the armor."

I tilted my head down and began to think...

Maybe I should give it to Ander, since she does have the highest attack and likes to go directly into battle, or Alice she could get into the worst situations and is after all our rear guard. Lilith, it could boost her speed making it capable of more attacks... Me? I could- No, I cant be thinking about myself, as the party's strategist I have to calculate anything and everything that adds to our chances of victory at any given time. So I cant hastily say I should get it for some random reason even if I do want it.

Gah! This is frustrating!

I felt a something on my shoulder, I turned to see what it was and it was Ander's hand. I turned to her and she was smiling as well was everyone else.

"Your thinking about us again right?" Ander said raising an eyebrow.

"We already know who did the most part sooo..." Lilith said slowly rolling her eyes with her finger on top of her lips.

"Wai- Wha?! N-No I-!" I said stuttering.

"We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you." Alice said with a kind smile.

"I too think Big brother should take it!" Terra said agreeing.

"B-But-!" I said stuttering.

"Shut up and take it already! Sheesh!" Ander exclaimed.

I let out a deep sigh and made a gentle smile.

Guess they really want me to have it, cant be helped then. I would have preferred one of them should get it, but they worry about me.

Alfred bore a smile as he watched us.

"I see, then once you go stop by the tailor shop and get yer measurements, afterwards come back and give them to me, thus I shall proceed to procuring your gear.

"Okay." I said.

"What about weapons?" Alfred asked.

"Hm... I cant really say, um what kind of weapons do you guys prefer." I said turning my gaze towards the 4 girls.

"Something with a bit more weight would be nice..." Ander said.

"A bow with more range and fire power would do." Alice said.

"I guess a blade that's light and has a sharp edge would be for me." Lilith said.

"Oh, not me. I'm not used to fighting." Terra said waving her hands.

"I see, I see. I'm sure I could find or make something adequate to your tastes in the following week." Alfred said.

"Thank you, one last thing. I heard from Sam you were a master blacksmith so I was hoping I could learn how to forge." I said

Alfred's eyes widened in surprise as well as the others.

"What? Lad, you want to learn how to forge? Sure, but do ya have what it takes to learn under me?" Alfred said narrowing his eyes staring at me.

"I'll manage." I said returning his look.

"Hahaha! I like yer spirit! I'd teach ya right now, but it seems you have other things to do at the moment than just buying equipment." Alfred said.

"Ah, right-" I said.

I was about to say our goodbye's for now and just come the next day but...

"Oh, no you could stay, we'll do the rest of the shopping." Ander said.

"Are you sure? I mean-" I said.

"Mu! We'll be fine!" Terra exclaimed.

I guess it should be fine, I mean Ander is there with them as well and Terra should be able to handle business.

"If anything happens come to me immediately." I said.

"Yeah, We'll be off then!" Lilith said.

They walked out of the room and exited the store.

"Alright, lets get started, first I'll teach you the basics." Alfred said.

"I'm ready!" I exclaimed.

(3 Hours Later) (The same amount of time for me to research all this.)

I was busy hammering on a piece of iron on an anvil and slowly flattening it and keeping its heat in check for me to continue hammering it, I started about an hour ago after Alfred explained to me the basics of forging...

Alfred explained to me the basics of forging, the first thing he talked about are the different types of metals and their properties, it turns out that along with the metals from the periodic table back in the old world there are a whole bunch of different metals here as well, names such as Black Iron, Twilight silver, Glass steel etc. that I've never heard before except for mithril and orichachlum, it does fit that fantasy world type, but damn there are a lot of names. The types spanned from speed types composing of light metals, impact types being heavy metals and so on so forth.

There were also Alloys in this world too, alloys could be made as simple as smelting two types of metal and combining them, but one must be careful of how much of each metal they put or the properties could become unbalance, essentially this affects the stats of the weapon or the item made, he also mentioned combining alloys together and mentioning that some metals are hard to be combined with other metals to form stronger alloys. There were magical alloys, but that was out of his range of experience.

Next he went to tools, at this point in time, technology hasn't advanced far enough to be able to procure faster ways on how to do certain actions and when there was not a lot of people could have it, but he did have a grinder for sharpening and grinding of sides of metal of course not motorized. He explained that the most essential tools for a smith were the forge, an anvil, a hammer, tongs and a leg vice. Each of these had its own purpose which placed into memory. Most of the tools he had were also made with exquisite material.

Then he went to procedures, he explained to me how to do various things like smelting sharpening which were easy to understand. The ones that he took longer to explain were how to mold the metals to their desired shape. Heating up the metal was the first step then with a hammer start molding the shape by flattening, and using other tools to bend and twist it into different forms. The finished product could be designed in numerous ways from the blade down to the hilt, some of the swords hanging on the wall made my eyes gleam with amazement to the detail.

Once the weapon is finished one could start refining, according to Alfred when a weapon is made it is in a battle ready condition, but not a finished product, that is where refining comes in. Just like in any other RPG a weapon can be refined to increase stats to its utmost potential, depending on the material used. It would start of with a base material or weapon, during refining the weapon will be broken down and remade and combined with the new material. Depending on the amount of materials refining could be done numerous times separately, but not fully until all materials are required. The base material also affects the stats of a weapon, if the base material of the weapon is low and the refining material is of higher level then there is a higher chance it wont work together, but if both materials are of the same level and quality or even just a bit higher then it has the highest chance of working. This will also depend on the skill one has on it.

Besides refining one could imbue their weapons with crystals or gems to increase the power, imbue them with symbols or magic or add more pieces of equipment etc. this is already modification, what's good about it is that everything stacks on one another. Perhaps my ultimate gear could be achieved in this Minecraft...

This will also be the way Alfred will make my serpent gear.

He even showed me demonstrations of each of the procedures except refining. He finished a simple iron sword in a matter of 30 minutes, it had the same stats as my iron sword, but he said if he continued to work on it the strength of the sword would be higher and the refining process wouldn't change. That just showed just how much skill he has in forging.

Currently the first assignment given to me was to make a simple dagger out of iron. During the first 20-30 minutes I kept on failing, the metal kept on bending the wrong way or broke of mid way, God was that frustrating to do, this was my 10th time. Though every time I would get a bit of increase for both forging and metal working, mostly forging, a finished product would have been much higher though.

The length of the dagger only spanned a few inches using the most standard iron more like the weapons we use, I was on the final stages, tempering the metal making it durable, but this could be done numerous times to achieve the highest durability before refining and could vary depending on the material used, but I'm pretty sure it will lessen accordingly to my metal working and forging stat.

After I went to the grinder, sparks flew off of the metal as it slowly made its sharp edge and smoothing the surface of my hilt. Once I took it of I grabbed a whet stone in order to sharpen the blade and have a clean finish, this was the final touch of the dagger. When I took of my hand a white light gleamed, or maybe that was only my imagination.

A window popped up

[Iron Dagger made!]

[Forging +5]

[Metal working +3]

I smiled as I wiped of the sweat on my forehead, I held up the dagger checking it.

A window popped up.

Iron Dagger

\+ 6-8 Attack

Range: Very Short

Status: Sharp

Weight: 150

Durability: 100

Description:

Standard Iron forged into a Dagger.

Its the same stats as the one back home I guess this is the base stats, if I improved forging and placed more work into it what kind of stats would it give me?

I should probably show it to Alfred.

I went over to Alfred who was currently harvesting our serpent, I took a look and currently he was already at the inside harvesting meat and bone, again there wasn't any blood, but during advance harvesting you have to cut the internal organs so of course you have to see it and there was texture which gleamed with a slimy, reddish substance covering it, I guess they have to pay attention to detail though we can't see all the gore.

Speaking of which... I've always heard about the others complaining about blood or something every once in a while during hunting. Whenever I asked them, they were surprised I can't see it and a some point thought that I was delusional or maybe used to killing, which made them shiver in their boots that time and times when they told me to take a shower because I smell from blood or wash my clothes, in lake of course, maybe it has something to do with me not being able to see my stamina gauge either, and I haven't found anything in the help section. Though I'm not fully immune to it, I can smell and feel it just can't see it. It's not like I'm going to stop fighting if I can see the blood if ever there was any, I just hope it doesn't become a problem when I do see it.

"Oh, Lad ya finished! Here, lemme see it." Alfred said stretching his hand out.

"Okay." I said.

I gave him the dagger and began examining it. He then got a piece of a 5 inch wooden plank and slammed the edge onto it. It took two strikes before the wood fell of, he examined again cleaning it with a cloth wiping the chips of wood.

"Not bad, I can see some talent coming from you." Alfred said shining it in the light.

"Thank you." I said.

"Ah, Lad I want to tell ya something about yer serpent." Alfred said

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"No, its by far one of the best I've seen, it must have lived a long life to get this quality. After examining it more apparently its scales surpass the hardness of steel, if I turned this into scale mail you shouldn't have a problem with even with the toughest mobs in this here town. This meat as well there would be many alchemists and researchers that would love to get a hold of this it would sell for a good price and also, after examining the bones of this serpent, it would be perfect to be made into a weapon, and could perhaps be turned into armor, so I thought that maybe I could turn the bones into armor and weapons for yer friends." Alfred said.

Ah, that's good but...

"Is it within our budget?" I said calmly.

"Most probably, though this may change during the process." Alfred said unsure.

"Then please proceed." I said calmly.

In the next minute the door of the store front opened and 4 girls poured into it. They came into the room holding a baskets of food, coal, and other items. I guess they did something with that 10,000G.

"Big Brother! Were here to pick you up!" Terra exclaimed.

"Ah, your back! Was everything alright?" I asked.

"Well... Some people, tried to hit on us..." Alice said while rubbing her shoulder and looking downwards.

Wait what?! No, this is expected all 4 of them have exceptional looks of course they're not impervious to being hit on. Wait, if they were being hit on... Oh no...

"I-I see, so what happened...?" I asked worriedly.

"Ander dealt with them." Lilith said casually pointing to Ander.

Ander averted her eyes in an upward direction.

This was what I was worried about...

"I did warn them." Ander said looking at her fingernails trying to avoid eye contact.

"Ander, you didn't..." I said worriedly

"I left them at death's doorstep I'm sure they are fine." Ander said blowing on her nails.

"Yeah, Big Sister punched the lights out of them!"

"And, you didn't stop her?" I said looking at the Alice and Lilith.

"Well..." Alice said averting her eyes.

"I was on my breaking point as well, just so happened that Ander took it a bit too much..." Lilith said.

"Sorry Zach, I know you didn't want any attention to us, but they were harassing us. So I had to do what I did." Ander said with crossed arms.

I placed my hand on my face and sighed. There goes their low profile, I'm pretty sure news will spread out fast into the village.

"Nevermind. I probably would have done the same thing, I'm just glad you were there in my stead." I said.

Ander immediately looked away with a slightly red face. Terra then approached Alfred with a piece of paper.

"Ah, Alfred sir we have our measurements." Terra said.

"Thank you. Lad I'm sure you could tell them what we talked about." Alfred said looking at me.

"Hm, what is it?" Alice asked.

"Well you see..." I said.

I told them of what me and Alfred talked about the serpent...

"Oh, we understand, we'll try to prepare more funds for our purchase." Ander said.

"Ah, no, don't worry. If I were to estimate how long this would take I'd say I'd need at least a few weeks to make all of them with my utmost ability." Alfred said.

"Thank you. So did you get anywhere while we were gone?" Ander asked.

"I only made this so far." I said sighing.

I showed them the Dagger I made. They were amazed, but all I could do was sigh.

"Don't worry Lad, you'll be makin' some of the best equipment before ya know it!" Alfred said while placing his elbow on my shoulder.

Alfred smiled at me and so did the others with encouragement, I smiled back.

"Are you ready to go?" Lilith asked.

"Um, yeah. Alfred is it okay for me to go?" I asked.

"It's getting late, sure." Alfred said.

"Thank you I'll be back tomorrow." I said.

"I'll be waiting." Alfred said.

We then went out of the store, once we got out of the Black smith area of the town we passed by the Barracks. The barracks also had a courtyard where the soldiers would train and do exercises led by the chief, whenever I'd come to the village I would watch them and some others do as well. While we were chatting I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

END OF CHAPTER 19


	20. UPDATE PAGE NOT A CHAPTER

Okay, this is not a chapter. This is my little update page. Since I am not a perfect author I tend to make ideas after I post a chapter, I am trying my best to correct this habit. This will be the place where you will see all the new changes so that you don't have to scan older chapters for them or some announcements that I will be making. I should really make a blog for this... Some other time.

All older content on this chapter will be deleted after one week to make way for the newer updates if there are ever any, I hope not.

January 18, 2017 Wedsday.

Now everyone I have some bad news. I just got grounded by my parents since I got some bad grades on my report card. So I am probably gonna post slower since all the time I did have before they grounded me was one weekend now that's shortened things will be a lot slower. Now I promise you all that this weekend the next chapter will be up, replicating fight scenes like a weeb and doing research take up most of my time in writing these chapters. Thanks for all your support on this series. Oh if you have any questions about my series feel free to PM me and I'll be sure to PM you back.

January 20, 2017

-Added New HP system

See Chapter 16

Exercise equals HP.

-Added New Timeframe.

See Chapter 14. Last part. Changed 3 weeks to 2 months.

Why? Because I felt that Zach was getting strong too fast. The world also followed real world standards there for I must obey even if he is special.

-Recalculated Zach's Stats

since he was getting strong to fast. Further Calculations and redo's will happen during checking if ever.


	21. Update 20: Sparring

Update 20: Sparring

"Zach!" A familiar voice called out.

I abruptly turned my head to the man calling out to us by the other side of the courtyard.

(Yeah, sorry to disappoint, but its only typical good old Sam)

It was Sam, he was sweating uncontrollably as he came to the edge of the courtyard to greet us, the soldiers behind him were sparring against one another as their usual exercise. Each of them timing their swings and movements, measuring the ability of their combatants, all of them wore leather armor and using wooden swords instead of metal ones to avoid damaging their opponents.

"Oh, Sam. What's up? Did you get caught?" I asked

"Of course not!" Sam exclaimed.

As soon as he said that a deep voice shouted out to him.

"SAM GET BACK HERE, YOU STILL HAVE TO DO 200 MORE PUSH UP's FOR SLACKING AT THE GATE!" A familiar voice shouted.

Sam flinched for a few seconds before turning tail and running back to the others.

"Y-Yes sir!" Sam said.

So he did get caught. I wonder what he does all the time besides guard duty?

I looked at the man who called him, it was the Chief. When our eyes met he gave a smile and slowly walked towards us. When he saw the girls behind me his expression turned surprised for a second but returned to his earlier composure.

"Ah, Zach your here again. Terra, Oh and Ander. I didn't expect you to come to the village anytime soon." The Chief said

Ander gave a out a short smile before speaking.

"Chief, nice to see you. Seems like your working your men hard as usual." Ander said unsurprised.

"Hahaha! That's how it is after you join the army, I was appointed responsible for this village so I have to train these men hard." The Chief said as if it were a compliment.

He laughed and noticed Alice and Lilith.

"Oh, it seems there are others with you, you must be friends of Zach, my apologies you must not know me." The Chief said bowing down.

"Ah, no your Maxwell Arrol the chief of Nara village, um our names are Alice and Lilith, its a pleasure to meet you." Alice said bowing as well as Lilith.

"The pleasure is mine, heard from Sam you were in at the Smith, what were you doing there?" The Chief said raising an eyebrow.

"You see..." I said scratching my nape.

I told him the events that occurred today. He was really surprised by the contents at first, but soon believed it after.

"Ah, you really are tough I want to appoint you as one of my men now!" The Chief said in a hearty tone.

"Sorry, but I have to turn down your offer, I've got other plans." I said.

"I see." The Chief said sighing.

He paused for a few seconds and as if a lightbulb appeared on his head he had an idea which made him open his eyes widely.

"Oh since you're here why don't you spar with us. Been wanting to ask you when I got the chance." The Chief said in a modest tone.

"Ah, um..." I said hesitantly.

"Don't worry you'll be fine. I've also wanted to see your ability from that day."

Sparring? Hm, I'm a bit hesitant to show any of my abilities in front of other people if most I'd rather just remain low. I just really don't want to have a lot of attention on my hands.

I looked back at the girls, they showed expressions and gentle smiles.

Oh no. They're giving me those faces. What should I do?

But I didn't need to answer it.

"What are you waiting for? Go!" Lilith exclaimed lightly pushing me.

"We'll be fine." Ander said reassuringly.

I guess if its like this then I cant do a thing. Fine I might as well show off a bit while I'm here.

"Alright." I said sighing.

The Chief gave a smile and made a hand gesture signaling to come along.

"Just hop over, here's some leather armor and a wooden sword." The Chief said

I placed on the leather suit and picked up the sword. We walked through the crowd, after we reached the center...

"Everyone stop what your doing and form a line! Now!" The Chief shouted.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned towards the Chief.

"Yes sir!" All the soldiers shouted in unison and formed a line.

Each of them had their own unique features of different sizes and shapes which shows just how long they have been training.

The Chief must really work them to the core to be like this.

"Okay, everyone I'm here with someone today, you might have already heard or know about him, his name is Zach." The Chief announced.

Everyone went from their composed state to a more casual state conversing with one another through whispers.

"Zach? The guy who fought with Etrina and lived?..." A voice said.

"Who's he?..." Another voice asked.

"He's the local adventurer who came to the village..." A voice said.

"Huh? But he doesn't have a status plate..." A voice said.

I was hearing the regular stuff that they were whispering to each other, some of them ridiculous. I was sighing to myself over and over as I heard bits and pieces of each one of them until, I heard one guy...

"Ah, I heard he lived some where in the woods with mobs and have been hunting to earn money?" A voice said.

"Seriously Mobs? What kind of person would be living with those disgusting creatures..." Another voice said.

As soon as I heard that, I couldn't just stand around and do nothing, I looked at the others and they were depressed as well. Ander looked as she was about to jump in and kill him, but she was struggling not to. So I took the liberty of doing it for her.

"Oi. You, don't think I can't hear you over there." I said directly to him.

One of the guys looked back at me immediately.

Found him.

He seemed to be a man in his late twenties with short hair, a short beak like nose with a pair of deep eyes. He had a tall and bulky body build and an arrogant look, reminds me of a regular high school bully, these are the kind of people I hate in any world, most especially online. He looked at me with a pissed off look.

Just what I needed...

"Piece of shit." I said in a disliking tone while narrowing my eyes in disgust.

The man widened his eyes in rage and shouted back at me.

"Hey you bas-!" He said, but then suddenly shuddered.

I released all my killing intent directly towards him making him take a step back. Its a small technique I made myself, now this is not a skill given by the system it is something I do on my own, I've been practicing to use it against the smaller mobs in the forest and they all start running that's why I tried to learn how to control or suppress it and only go all out when I need to. This was a sort of technique used by fighters or probably interrogators back in the old world, and in this world its just as useful against scumbags like this.

Just like I thought, he really is just the average bully, they act tough, but in the face of strength all the could do is run. I just couldn't stand people like this, but now in this world it reached new heights, discrimination is such a disease.

"What was that?" I said grimly while tilting my neck.

"Both of you stop! The reason I brought Zach here isn't to start a fight, I wanted to ask for volunteers to spar with him, but it seems Ernest got the lucky pick." The Chief said looking at the man.

The man's eyes widened furiously as he began talking to the Chief.

"What!? Why must I spar with him?! He doesn't even look like a challenge!" Ernest exclaimed pointing at me.

He continued to rant, the Chief finally got annoyed by his behavior.

"Oh? Then perhaps you'd want to go against me instead?" The Chief calmly said.

Ernest shuddered and immediately shut his mouth.

"N-No sir." Ernest said shaking and waving his hands frantically out of fright.

"Then spar." The Chief said in a bitter tone and narrow eyes directly at him.

"Y-Yes sir..." Ernest said.

After he walked a few steps away from the Chief he had his sights on me grinding his teeth in anger. I could see the flames in his eyes just waiting to burst out.

Mission accomplished. Time for me to get to work.

"Tch, Bastard I'll kill you for this! Once I'm finished your face will be so mashed no one will recognize who you are!" Ernest said threateningly.

"Er-!" The Chief said before I raised my hand to stop him.

"Let him be. I've caused you some trouble, I'll handle it for you." I said.

The Chief nodded and took a step back from us. Both of us readied our stances. Ernest's stance had his wooden sword in front of him with his legs spread apart, a typical stance, an aura of killing intent erupted from his body trying to direct it towards me, but I wasn't fazed by it, it was just the same look as the monsters I hunt with the girls.

I let out a sigh and suppressed my killing intent. I narrowed my sights on my opponent with the wooden sword at my side.

Everything was silent between us, everyone watched intently and even some of the other people walking on the side saw us and stopped to watch as well. Then the chief said the go signal.

"START!" The Chief shouted.

With his word, Ernest dashed towards me and swung his sword from the right. I parried. I continued to parry all his attacks, everyone watched in amazement towards us, more and more people were gathering as well.

Why was his attacks so slow and weak? No, wait... I did evenly split the rest of my 60 attribute points on my physical stats, but shouldn't I at least feel something?

There was also the passive skills I got when I increased my physical stats. I actually, believe it or not have 9 passives already, all which were focused on my physical stats. The first 3 were named [Natural Strength],[Natural Endurance] and [Natural Agility] all of these increase the stats by a meager 5%. The fourth was like a set requirement called [Physical Prowess] which greatly increased the effects of all my Physical Skills by 15% and also a 10% increase on Stamina capacity. An example of the skill effect increase would be [Sweeping Arc]'s stun time or [Dead Centre]'s decrease of Agility. The 4th Passive must have been a bonus to anyone who was an all-rounder character or a random character and probably be the reason why I held out against the serpent.

Why didn't I think of that during the time?

(Oh, because the author of this story has a low thinking process when writing this and has no clue how to think about the minor details about this game. I know I'm roasting myself, yeah so I thought that he may need some Passives because you know why not? And also it was Lacking.)

That wasn't all though just like the first 4 another 4 came to greet me with the same requirements this time at 100. This time they named [Enhanced Strength, Endurance and Agility], the effects of each were +10%. With this I already had an increase of 15% on all my physical stats. And the last skill, [Enhanced Body] gives -15% Stamina usage and +20% on all physical based attacks.

Now the last skill was one I found while scrolling through my passive skills. Its called [Mark of the Blessed]. I didn't understand what this skill did exactly, but this was the description placed on it.

[The Blessing of Eve]

You carry the Blessing of Eve one of the two God of this world. The Blessing expands and heightens your growth with unlimited potential.

Basically speaking I think it helps me grow faster in terms of stats and EXP, though I don't understand how. Is this why I'm improving so fast?

If a regular person in this world would have stats of 5, then from that until 50 should be where these soldiers should be or even more. The strength of the serpent had already past 100 so it should be in a 100- 500 stat range, if it was 1000, let's not go there yet...

I leapt back, he bore a smirk as if thinking he has already won, in truth though he was already breathing heavily.

"Aw, scared? Save it for when I beat your sorry ass!" Ernest jeered.

He resumed to chasing me...

How predictable... He's uselessly charging at me at full speed, not even considering timing or measuring his steps, he was even swinging his sword underestimating my strength, can't blame him though, but I was expecting more from the Chief's men. These swords were considerably blunt so even if his stats are lower than mine I shouldn't be able to kill him with one hit. In the next second I thrust my sword into his stomach.

"Gefuu!" Ernest said on impact.

He fell backwards and lied on the floor covering his stomach region while coughing. Everyone stared at me in amazement. The Chief bore a satisfying expression. He then pointed at 3 of the soldiers.

"END! You 3 get him up!" The Chief said.

At his word the 3 men moved and held Ernest by his arms to pull him up. Ernest after regaining himself shrugged off the rest of the guards from their grasps. He then began to rant to the Chief.

"The hell was that Chief! He clearly almost killed me!" Ernest exclaimed.

Kill you? I tried my best not to kill you, if you really wanted to be killed then I would have let you be and let Ander take care of you.

"Ho? And who was the one that said he was going to "beat his ass". Plus you needed it." The Chief said mockingly.

Ernest looked back at me with veins appearing on his forehead, the flames in his eyes grew bigger each second he looked at me. All I could do was wryly smile in his defeat. Which made him grind his teeth.

"Grr! One more round!" Ernest exclaimed grabbing his sword.

I let out a sigh... Its the typical tough guy act, I find so many people like this online in MMO's. People who brag about their skill and equipment being so good compared to the noobs who just started playing, those were such pain's to hear from them, so the only way to shut them up is shove the same words down their throat after beating the living hell out of them, and I was one of the people who personally did it.

"Alright then, Zach Don't hold back." The Chief said abruptly.

"Wha? Is it alright? I might damage him a bit." I said jokingly.

"Do it until he's satisfied." The Chief said.

"Alright Chief." I said preparing my wooden sword.

Ernest got back up again, this time with a different expression, now that he knows my strength I'm sure he'll be more careful. But, I was wrong though, he did the same tactic, over and over and over again, the Chief didn't stop me either. It took only 5 minutes and it was already at the point where his face was mashed up with what looks to be bruises and small grid cuts. Since attacks do leave physical wounds and results, then me not being able to see blood must be only limited to me.

I looked back at him lying on the ground. Ah, he actually fainted on the last one.

Well, that's done.

"Alright, now that you know Zach, and the Ernest is out of the way. Does anybody else want to try?" The Chief asked.

All of them shook their heads in fright. Well that's what I get, though I didn't really show of, I just used regular attacks. The Chief placed his hand on his chin thinking of something. Then he had an idea.

"Hm, Then Zach. Would you mind if you sparred with me?" The Chief said in a casual tone.

Well, I guess it should be fine. There isn't anyone else so I guess there's no other choice.

"Ah. I don't mind, but don't expect me to hold back." I said.

"Haha! I'd like that. Don't beat me up too much." The Chief laughed in response before grabbing a wooden sword.

Its not that I don't like him or I'm making fun of him, the reason why I'm going all out is that, though I can't see his level, I just have that feeling that he's way stronger than me, the current me that is. We took up our wooden swords again and stood apart from each other, I observed his movement, he has the look of a warrior who has seen many battles, it's also shown in his stance. He did say he was in the army so I guess that provided him with experience, however there's no way I'm holding back, I just hope I don't accidentally hurt him during our spar.

My regular fighting style would be to wait for my opponent to draw an attack then once I parry or avoid it find an open spot to strike if there is one, but I'm not sure if this could really work against a professional fighter though.

"Start!" One of the soldiers shouted.

He came charging at me with tremendous speed, it was the same battle style as Ernest, but unlike him each of his steps brimmed with skill and experience, every step calculated, almost no movement's wasted, this only goes to show how much he effort he has put. The distance he cleared with each step was overwhelming, before I knew it he was in front of me.

I widened my eyes and quickly parried his swing, but the next few strikes came with much faster speed, I struggled to parry his swings. This was a spar so I can't hit him indiscriminately and cannot bear any killing intent, at best I have to continue trading attacks, but each of his swings carry great power. I count 2 second intervals, but even seconds are longer than they seem. I found a small opening in his attack and took it. I made an upward diagonal swing, but he noticed it and parried. Eyes began gathering around us staring intently.

"Hey, is he serious?" A voice said.

"Standing against the Chief like this..." Another voice said.

As well as more expressions with the message of "Ooooh" and "Aaah" from the villagers, seems like I'm doing something quite amazing, I can see why. We continued to trade blows with one another and at some point felt that our attacks were reaching to one another though I'm sure I got more of them, I felt small pains on my arms and legs, nothing that can do me in instantly, but the Chief hasn't broken a sweat. I was heavily breathing, staring at the Chief with a hardened gaze and griped my sword tightly to prepare for the next strikes, but there were none. The Chief cracked a smile and laid down his stance.

"Hm, your pretty good, stubborn too. Never seen someone so young last this long against me for a first time, even though I was holding back a bit. I see how you were able to beat the serpent."

"A serpent!" Some of the crowd shouted.

"No way?! This guy for real!?" Another one said.

The same expressions of astonishment appeared on the crowd's faces. I saw a slight glint on the Chief's eyes.

He knew I didn't want any attention, but said it out loud anyway, what are you doing old man! I felt my eyebrow twitch for a second. I let out a sigh after.

"You praise me too much, I can't compare to you, yet that is..." I said giving of a narrow smile.

I returned the glint back to him. He looked at me with widened eyes but smiled after.

"Ho? I like that look in your eyes, I'm sure you will. Anyway thank you for joining my demonstration, I'm sorry if I have troubled you." The Chief said smiling back.

"No, this is a worthwhile experience." I said.

"I see, then you should be of-" The Chief said, but I stopped him.

"Ah, wait a second! Um, its a bit embarrassing, but can I also participate in your training as well?" I said excitedly.

The Chief showed a surprised expression before sighing and giving a response.

"Sure, join us whenever you like." The Chief said.

"Thank you!" I said bowing.

The Chief told us about the training schedule, and sent us of with a smile. We gathered more eyes as we walked out of the barracks courtyard to the exit of the village much more than when we initially got here, truly unsettling. Once we left the gate the pressure left me and finally talk to the girls normally.

"Hey, Zach. Why did you want to participate in the Chief's training?" Terra asked.

"Its the same reason why I wanted to learn blacksmithing, I'm doing this solely to survive and adapt in this world, to be honest learning new stuff is fun." I said.

(BUT NOT MATH!)

Lilith grinned at me.

"But there's another reason too right?" Lilith said teasingly.

"You already know it. Do I need to say it out loud. Geez." I said bashfully.

I felt my face slightly warming up and slowly averted my eyes.

"Aw, your so shy its starting to be cute." Lilith teased.

"Big Brother is so fun to tease. Hehehe." Terra said giggling.

"Kukuku. We all know you care for us, but I'm not going to get tired of seeing that expression escape from your face." Alice giggled as well.

"Hrrrmm..." I said still averting my gaze.

They giggled at me. I turned to face Ander who was covering her smile with her hand, when she finally noticed me looking at her, her cheeks reddened and averted her eyes. All I could was smile at them.

"C'mon lets go home." I said.

They all smiled and we continued to walk back to the house and ended the day.

A one week later...

The following days I joined at least one of their sessions after I was done with doing my chores or practicing with Alfred sessions. Ernest kept on challenging me to fights after that day and of course I would beat him up at least once if he did. The good thing about me joining their sessions is that my stats are increasing a bit faster than training alone, everyone seemed to be nice and to me I guess it was alright. The bad thing was that today...

I was being tossed and flipped by the Chief...

"UWAAH!" I shouted.

A hard "tud" sound was heard when I hit the ground. I was on my back lying on the ground.

Today was a hand to hand combat exercise...

"Oww..." I said rubbing my back as I slowly got up from the ground.

"Zach. You alright?" The Chief said offering a hand.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." I said taking it.

The Chief pulled me back up. I got back up rubbing my backside.

"Lets take a break here. I'll be back" The Chief said.

The Chief then walked away into the barracks.

Turns out they do these kinds of exercises too, well considering this was from the military its not surprising that the Chief is teaching this and what's more is that these guys don't really fight anything stronger than a human most of the time. I look around me looking at the others doing the same thing flipping and grappling their opponents with wooden knives.

Sigh... their doing a better job than I am.

During the start of all this the Chief said he would train me personally if I ever joined since there isn't anyone stronger than me besides the Chief and Etrina. He showed me multiple demonstrations and techniques he learned and ever since I started about an hour ago I'm not getting anywhere. Maybe its because I'm against the Chief?

I got skills like [Grappling] and [Elbow strike] from doing this. The way these hand to hand combat techniques work is that it does damage based on the [Strength] stat which does make sense and since it is that way there are no levels to improve this. The only way to improve this is by perfecting one's form of execution, that's what I see so far. The Chief told me that these are the first steps towards martial arts, though I don't think I have any plans of learning that far, I am a swordsman after all. The only reason I agreed to join sessions like this is that I thought it would be useful if ever I don't have a weapon with me.

"Yo Zach. How've you been holding up?" Sam asked.

"Alright I guess, but I don't think I could stand against the Chief anytime soon." I said disappointed.

"Well, that's my Dad for you, he's a tough opponent." Sam said unsurprised.

"I could see that. But he is a respectable man." I said smiling.

We both continued to chat until an annoying pest showed up.

"Hey! I still haven't gotten back at you for yesterday!" Ernest shouted.

He's still hasn't gotten over it yet?

"What? Still salty scrub?" I said jeering at him.

Rage filled his mind, but then gained back his cool.

"Grr! If your a man then fight me, this time only hand to hand combat!" Ernest exclaimed.

Sigh... I guess there's only one way to shut him up. These kinds of guys don't give up no matter how hard you destroy them, I'm actually tired of this guy already, but if it'll teach him a lesson then I hold no problems showing it to him.

"Alright, but if I win, lay off me already." I said annoyed.

"And if I win?" Ernest asked expectant of something.

Are you serious? This guy is getting full of himself.

"Ha? You already challenged me and decided the rules, beating me is all the reward your getting after this." I said narrowing my eyes annoyed.

"Rrr, Fine. First one down wins, no hitting to the face or private parts." Ernest said.

"Okay." I said.

We then started walking apart from each other.

More people gathered around us though most of them were just the soldiers this time. Both of us stepped a part from one another and formed our stances. Our stances were the same since we were both thought the same techniques by the Chief with both our fists in front. In the next few seconds an ominous aura appeared around Ernest.

What's this? Killing intent? Sigh... Why do I even have to bother lets just get this over with. Guess I'll hold back a bit, lets try some of those techniques.

He came lunging at me with his fist in the air. I took a small step back to avoid it. I then grabbed his wrist and took a hold of his clothes, I pulled his hand downwards while applying force to my hand holding on to his chest, and after flipped him over on his back, the skill's name was [Turn Over] it was a branch of a the [Grappling skill tree].

"UGAH!" Ernest said as I spammed him on the ground.

And just like that, it was over.

"You know if you were trying to pull a fast one, be sure to not show that aura around you, because even if you would try your enemy would already sense it." I said with a grim expression.

"Tsk! Ano-" Ernest said but immediately stopped when he saw my expression.

I release my killing intent which I could tell was not astronomically high, but I do know its higher than his, after all I don't think he has killed anything.

"Do you intend to keep annoying me?" I said in a grim tone.

He gulped as I slowly released my grip from his collar. I began walking away to a different spot with the crowd also walking away with expressions that said "As per usual."

I'm sure that idiot got my message, but then again... Yeah he'll probably be back.

Then a familiar person walked out of the barracks door and into the courtyard. With skin that reflected the sun's gaze and short platinum grey hair as well as a face that could make most men fall, I knew who this was, it was Etrina. I haven't been seeing her a lot lately since she was assigned to the night guard, but other than that according to the Chief it seems she's been patrolling the entire village walking around, this must be a big village for me not to be seeing her so frequently.

Behind her was the Chief talking to her, then when her gaze met mine her expression dampened. She slowly began walking towards me with the same stare she gave me on my first day. Everyone stopped and paused as she walked to me.

She was in front of by just a few feet and began speaking to me.

"Oh, Etrina haven't seen you around." I said casually.

She returned it with a cold glare.

Uh oh. Did I- no wait she hated me from the start why am I so surprised.

"Shut up, you don't have the right to call me my name. I came to check on the place after hearing that a white haired boy started participating in the Chief's exercises, and it seems you did me a favor by disciplining Ernest for me." Etrina said.

A favor?

"What does he do to you" I asked.

"He tries to act like a hotshot around the entire village, flirting with girls, abusing his authority, etc." Etrina said as he looked at Ernest with disgust.

He's an even bigger trouble maker than Sam. I'm even more glad that I did beat him up.

"What are you doing here? I'm surprised the likes of you to be here with in the barrack's courtyard." Etrina said in a stiff tone.

"Is it wrong for me to train along with you soldiers?" I asked.

"Yes, because you don't deserve to be one of us since you side with our enemy." Etrina said with an annoyed tone.

Straight to the point as usual, but I just can't stand people like this. I looked behind her towards the Chief and he was slowly shaking his head, right, I'll keep my cool for now.

"Even though I am not deserving, I don't plan to be a soldier. Plus the Chief said I could participate anytime I want." I said casually.

Etrina's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Chief!" Etrina exclaimed.

Etrina looks back at the Chief with surprise, while the Chief just gave a normal smile. She looked back at me with furious eyes.

I was expecting to say something rude to me, but I never expected what happened next.

"Tsk, if that's so... I challenge you to a duel!" Etrina exclaimed.

All of our expressions went blank, everyone around us focused their attention to her.

"WHAT!" I exclaimed.

UPDATE 20 CONCLUDED

I promised a chapter your getting one. There is a possibility that I may post another chapter before next Saturday. I ended up with 8000+ words so I just shortened it and I thought this is a good place to end it.

Cliffhangers for everyone! But I think you know the cliché thing that happens in these kinds of stories.

Pls visit the update page there were some things that I changed a few days ago. Before you do check all I want to say is that I wanted to make things more logical.


	22. Update 21: Duel Etiquette

Update 21: Duel Etiquette

What did she say just now? A duel? Wait, A duel?!

"Eh?..." I said with a blank expression.

"What!" Sam said with his mouth gaping open.

"If I win, you cannot ever show your face in Nara ever again! Also you must say that Mobs are disgusting creatures that are never to be trusted in front of the town hall!" Etrina shouted pointing at me.

"Chief are you really going through with this?" Sam asked the Chief worriedly

"I'm afraid this one is out of my control." The Chief said acting with a down expression.

Everyone looked towards her with shocked expression, except for the Chief who remained in a composed state.

Don't tell me it was you again! Does he mean to test me with someone more equal? This has gotten quite out of hand, guess I'll play along to meet his expectations.

"Alright then." I said.

"Say what?! Zach are you really going through with this?" Sam said shocked.

"I'm not finished. If I win you have to do one task for me no questions ask." I said pointing at Etrina with narrow eyes.

"What?! You cant believe that I'll-" Etrina said furiously before I interrupted her.

"Pfft,Coward..." I said pretending to laugh.

This should get her attention.

"What did you say?! Fine!" Etrina shouted in rage.

Etrina pouted after crossing her arms with an intimidating stare.

"Okay. So what will be the rules?" I asked.

"It seemed you had a match with Ernest before this, what were the rules then?" Etrina asked.

I didn't know why she asked until after so I obliviously answered her.

"Hand to hand combat only, no hitting at the face or private parts, first one down wins. Why?" I asked.

"Then we'll go with that. This time anything goes, if you surrender or can't fight you lose." Etrina said.

"Oh, okay- Wait what?!"

Cold sweat poured down on the side of my cheeks, my body began to stutter.

"Is there a problem?" Etrina asked.

"N-No its just-" I said stuttering.

I've only started learning hand to hand combat recently, there's no way I could stand up to a person who's experience has trumps years over mine! She'd wipe the floor with me! My stats have only increased by 4 or 5 points this week due to me using my skill points, there is no way I'd win!

My gaze looked back at the Chief watching us, he stood with a heated gaze full of expectation.

I can't back out now huh?

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

"No, there isn't." I said.

"Good now lets start." Etrina said.

"Though I have no jurisdiction over the consequences over this match I will be adding some rules. Zach, you can be downed 3 times, once those are up you will lose, Etrina you only have one chance. Do both sides agree with this?" The Chief asked looking to both of us.

3 times? Is she that good when it comes to hand to hand combat?

"Yes sir" Etrina answered solemnly.

The Chief nodded and this time turned to me.

"Zach, you don't have to hold back. We have potions in stock so give it all you've got!" The Chief said assuring

"Yes." I said

"I will be the referee for this match. Anyone who interferes will be given a punishment!" The Chief shouted to the crowd.

The crowd began to go a mock. Everyone shouting and whispering which one of us would win, I think I could hear some betting as well.

"Oi, who do you think would win?" A bystander said.

"It has to be Zach right?" Another whispered.

"No way! No one has ever beaten Etrina!" Another exclaimed.

We both walked to opposite from one another, all the soldiers stopped what they were doing and cleared an area for us to fight in the center. I narrowed my sights down on to her with my fists in front of me so did she. The atmosphere became silent.

Etrina attacked first, rearing her fist in to throw a punch. Etrina saw a chance and took it by throwing a punch towards my face at tremendous speed. I immediately tilted my head to the right. I then repositioned my left leg in a sweeping motion, spun around and proceeded to execute an elbow strike to the back of her head.

Her hand moved reflexively and blocked my strike with her left arm. In the next second with shocking speed Etrina curled her hand into a fist and threw it towards my rib cage. I didn't even have time to react, and her fist impacted against my side. Pain immediately flowed through.

Ouch!. I looked at my HP Gauge, it fell by at least 70HP. I have 2145 HP so that's good. My Endurance must be something huh.

Etrina then looked mystified since I didn't go down in one hit. I took the chance and made a kick towards her back side. She didn't flinch or move from her spot even, she only looked at me with the same face. Her Endurance stat must also be high, probably even higher. I then leapt away to regain my composure.

We stared at each other intently as the crowd around us bared gazes of excitement. It seems our stats aren't so close mostly me since I can tell that I am a bit far, it took her years to achieve this kind of power, but it took me 2 months to get me to this state of being able to at least take hits from Etrina. Does this make all of the 5 million players cheat characters now?

(Yes... Yes it does. Hey! I changed some of the stuff alright?! Stop looking at me like that!)

(Pls see the update page for more info.)

If its like this then I may not even need 3 tries.

Etrina's expression changed becoming more wary. It seems she has taken notice of my abilities. However despite this it seemed like she was determined to put me down, she charged at me again initiating her attack. I dodged and began countering, but with no avail. Etrina continued to barrage me with punches and kicks and I would do the same. Both of us avoided and blocked most of our attacks as well as snuck a few at each other, even so our HP levels were still at a manageable state, but the pain is slowly increasing the lower our HP is. I can already feel some of the parts of my arms and legs aching from this, but nothing I cant take.

Both of us stared at each other again with our fists in front of us. This time I made the assault, but it didn't go as I intended.

As soon as Etrina was in striking range I threw a fist at her. She immediately sidestepped, grabbed a hold of my arm and my shoulder to bend me down and issued knee kicks towards my chest. The pain was slowly going up.

Damn she is strong! I have to stop this some how!

But I didn't.

In the next second Etrina made a downward elbow strike to my back sending me plummeting for the ground signaling the end of the first match.

"End! 1 Strike for Zach!" The Chief shouted.

The crowd stared in amazement, Etrina on the other hand in disgust.

I was on all fours coughing and holding my chest region. I looked back at my HP Gauge and only 25% escaped in that match.

Good, I should be able to hold out for 3 more matches.

"Zach! You alright?" Sam came over and started to help me up.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I said.

I looked back at Etrina, she had that disappointed expression on her face with the message "Is that all?"

"If this is all then you'd better just surrender." Etrina said trying to intimidate me.

Of course that wouldn't work.

I got back on my feet and smiled at her.

"Don't worry you wont be disappointed." I said smirking.

Etrina returned it with a glare and walked away from me.

Her attack intervals have a very slow ranging from 3- 7 seconds depending on the timing of her hits. Our strength should be equal but I could tell that her endurance was something else, however despite that the reason she was able to beat me was due to her experience in this kind of combat, I've only been doing this for a week, she has been practicing for years, this just show's stats aren't everything in this world.

I walked away to make distance and I made my stance.

"Round 2 Start!" The Chief shouted.

Etrina charged at me again and began to attack. I avoided almost all her attacks and countered a few. Whenever I would try to do things that would supposedly make her fall like leg sweeps or grappling she would always find a way to counter it, no wonder she's the best.

Flurries of punches came at me at high speed. I was able to grab her arm and advance my attack. I punched Etrina in her stomach region and followed it up by an elbow strike in her to her chest then planted my feet and made an uppercut. I thought this attack would be it, but she caught it by my fist.

My eyes widened in surprise before she straightened it then making two kicks to my sides.

Kh! She's fast! I need to counter!

But, there wasn't any time to think. In the next second she made a leg sweep intending me to fall, I jumped, but what met me was a fist to the chest launching me backwards and falling to the ground.

"End! That is 2 strikes for Zach!" The Chief shouted.

I laid coughing and hacking as I held my chest. Through the pain I instinctively broke out a smile as I slowly got up.

"Zach!, Zach? Are you alright?" Sam said worriedly.

"Yeah. I'll hold up. But Damn, I can't seem to catch a break." I said giving of a forced smile.

"You are up against Etrina after all." Sam said with caution.

"I know. Don't worry I got this." I said raising my thumb.

I walked back to the battle ground holding my chest. That was 17% gone from my HP Gauge.

"Still standing? Your either very stubborn or just fool to still be able to fight." Etrina said with a stiff tone.

"I get that a lot, but I did get 3 tries its better I use them than just giving up right?" I said.

"Tsk. Whatever, once this is over you wont be able to show your face in this village again. Lets just get this over with." Etrina said annoyed.

We then went apart from each other to start the last match.

I cant lose this...

I took a deep breath and narrowed my sights on Etrina.

"Round 3 Start!" The Chief shouted.

The second the Chief said start we immediately dashed to each other. We both began our assault, both of avoiding and countering each others moves and at the same time taking damage. Etrina continuously tried to barrage me with attacks that would overwhelm me with her strength and attacks meant for my mobility to falter, but in these two matches I've been reading most of her moves. I may not last in a held out battle against her most especially in hand to hand combat, however if its just this I can manage.

Despite her stats being high its only her Strength and Endurance that are her main strong points however her Agility is lacking, but that doesn't mean she isn't fast, if I have to judge its close to my speed just a little higher. She can make attacks at tremendous speed and force and has done it multiple times during our 2 matches, however she's starting to become sluggish after the 2 matches earlier so this might be the best chance I get.

Her technique as well, since it seems she doesn't use any other weapon besides her fists she has been building it up for who knows how long, it could be seen in her grappling techniques adapted from training and improvising it into her own, one of those could easily down me the second I get caught into it. I just have to avoid the initial action.

More and More we began to press on each other, Etrina's HP was already below 50% while mine was below 30%. She was literally going all out on this, but all I need to do is sneak one good decisive hit and follow it up with a grappling technique to finish this.

My movements were slowing down due to the pain and HP loss, and soon made a mistake on my footing.

Etrina saw the opening and widened her eyes in concentration, intending to end this match.

Etrina made one last punch placing all her strength in it and launched it at shocking speed and impacted on my chest and flung me a few feet back

"Argh!" I said trying to cope with the pain.

I grinded my teeth to cope with the pain, holding my stomach region. I felt like I could faint any second, I must have used all my stamina. I forcefully moved my legs so that they wouldn't lose strength to support me. I began coughing up a large amount of liquid from my mouth.

"Hey! Is that blood?! Chief you need to stop this!" Sam shouted to the Chief.

Blood? Right I still cant see it. I looked at my HP Gauge, 30% was gone.

Oh no...

I looked back at Etrina with the same disgusted and more or less disappointed look on her face as if I never had a chance in the first place. The Chief said no words and continued to look at me with the words "Is that all?"

"Tsk" I clicked my tongue in frustration and anger. I forced my legs to straighten and placed my fist in front of me.

"Still standing? You are so troublesome to deal with. I must commend you though for your effort, your the first one who has lasted this long. However your in no condition to fight anymore just give up." Etrina said.

"I'm not finished yet. I'm not giving in to your consequences... plus battling you is fun." I said giving of a natural smile.

Her face showed an annoyed expression. I smirked before I started talking again.

"Why don't we end this with our next move shall we?" I said taunting her.

"Hmph! Getting cocky? Fine, but don't blame me if you find yourself in the Aether after!" Etrina said enraged.

I narrowed my sights on to her then prepared my stance for my last move. Etrina also did hers.

The atmosphere around us turned silent only the wind could be heard. Gazes of curiosity and expectation were lingering around us as we faced each other. In a split second Etrina dashed towards me placing everything she has into her next punch. When she launched it at me I quickly side stepped to grab her arm and issue a downward elbow strike on her elbow joint folding it.

Etrina's look turned surprised, but wasn't able to do anything for what came next.

I issued a fast knee strike to her stomach region making her bend. I then got the arm I folded earlier and raised it even more making her legs vulnerable. I kick the backside of her leg with great force causing her to tumble and fall. When Etrina opened her eyes again a fist was already heading straight for her.

Her eyes widened in disbelief as my fist came forth.

I was going to do the final strike until...

"End! Zach wins!" The Chief shouted.

I immediately stopped my fist momentum about an inch away from her stomach. I was taking heavy breaths.

I won?

A window appeared.

[Skill was obtained from a certain action!]

[Overextension unlocked!]

I earned a skill? Overextension did I go past my limits?

I saw Etrina on the ground with dotted eyes then I looked around us, the crowd shouted, cheered and clapped at the show we gave.

Thank God the Chief stopped me who knows what kind of damage that could have done if I went through with it. I don't think it would have though. I uncurled my fist into a palm as an invitation to help her up.

"Tsk!" Etrina clicked her tongue.

Etrina pushed away my hand and immediately got back up with her arms crossed and walked away from the scene. I guess she's a sore loser huh.

A few seconds later soldiers who came to know me as well as other villagers from outside the courtyard began to approach me, but not until my vision went dark and blacked out from exhaustion.

(A few hours later)

I slowly opened my eyes to find my self lying on a bed with bandages all over my body. Pain flowed through as I slowly began to rise up.

"Ouch. Ouch, Ouch." I said holding my injuries.

I looked around me. There were multiple beds aligned to one another. It seemed that I was in one of the knights quarters. The door suddenly creaked open and in came The Chief and Sam.

"Oh, Zach your up." Sam said.

"That was one hell of a show you did out there, I knew you'd win somehow, but winning against Etrina is a feat in its own. Wasn't sure at first if you were gonna win, but it worked out."

"You have to tell me stuff like this before you go doing it Old man! What were you thinking?!"

"Hahaha! I just wanted to see what you could really do myself! Well you pulled through. Never thought I would see someone as talented as her in my days, you'll probably surpass me in no time." The Chief said heartily laughing.

This Old man... Whatever I'll let this one slip. So that really was what he wanted. Did he know that I wouldn't be able to win against him so he got Etrina to do it? He is in the Army after all sooo... Oh right, I wanted to ask him about that.

"Oh, uh Chief, you were apart of the army right?" I asked.

"Sure was." The Chief said with a proud tone.

"Where were you in terms of rank?" I asked.

"Hmm, I was one of the leading captains." The Chief said scratching his chin.

Leading captains? Wow, no wonder.

"How was it?" I asked.

"Well, not bad, the pay was good, everyone respected me, had a lot of friends and got to protect people. To me it was a good life with a satisfying purpose." The Chief said with a satisfying smile.

"So why are you here?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Lets just say I found a greater purpose in life." The Chief said.

I was puzzled at first, but when Sam got my attention he was forming his hands into a shape of a heart.

"I see. So it was love huh?" I said.

The Chief sighed and made a smile after before speaking.

"Its embarrassing to say, but yes. A lot of things happened and now here I am." The Chief said.

"Take it from me kid, in life you find much more meaningful things than what you originally have. You seem to be quite the lady's man yourself! Terra and the others who came, I could tell from how they look at you." The Chief said giving me a wide smile.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"Oh right you have been living with them. Wait are you... have you been...?"

He then placed his arranged his fingers. One hand arranged with an O shape and the other with his pointer finger out going through it.

Is he implying sex?! WHAT THE FUCK?! Jesus Christ this bastard, why in hell would I think about having sex with any of them?!

(Hm... I don't know. Why haven't you? Oh right cuz I'm here.)

"NO! NO I HAVE NOT!" I shouted at him releasing my killing intent.

"Okay, Okay chill out I'm just kidding..." Sam said waving his hands up in cold sweat while The Chief laughed at us.

This son of a... never mind. I mean I know I'm eighteen and all, but that doesn't mean I should.

"But living with such beauties it makes me quite envious!" Sam said

"Oh, shut up." I said annoyed.

"Zach your living with Ander and everyone else right?" The Chief asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"How is it over there?" The Chief asked.

"Well its lively I'll give you that much, each of them have their own separate personalities, but it feels nice to be around them." I said giving a narrow smile.

"What are they to you? Are they precious?" The Chief asked.

"What is this an interrogation? Hm... In a sense, it feels like something I've lost a long time ago that's come back to me, that's why I want to stay and protect them." I said feeling tints of heat on the sides of my cheek.

The Chief then gave a contented expression from my answer. Even Sam tilted his head down and made the same expression.

"Your a man after all. Take these next words from a fellow man like yourself. You've got a good heart Zach, along with the power to match, so as a man protect your women as well as others." The Chief said with a proud tone.

I glanced at him with an amazed expression. This feels like a teacher giving advice to his student, no wonder he's so proud now. I sighed after.

So he's telling me to protect them. I guess he cares about their safety as well. I find so many people telling me the same message, this village really isn't discriminant towards mobs. I'm glad it is, but...

"Even if you didn't tell me, I would have done so anyway." I said with a slight heat on my face.

"Good to hear that from you. Its about time I leave." The Chief said.

"Yeah, me too. What time is it?" I asked.

"Its evening. You sure you want to go? You can stay longer, your injuries haven't fully healed yet." The Chief implied.

I looked at my HP Gauge. It was halved but slowly healing bit by bit. (Just to give you how fast it is its like 1...1...1. Its really slow.)

"I'll manage. Plus if I don't get home sooner Terra and the others are gonna scold me for coming home late."

"You must have it rough huh?" The Chief said.

"Yeah, but its not that bad." I said.

"Alright then I'll see you next time." The Chief said.

"See ya Zach." Sam said waving.

"Yeah." I said.

I walked out of the barracks after grabbing my clothes and came back to the entrance of the village which I came in from. I saw the guards as usual, but something was missing.

Hm... shouldn't Etrina be here by this time? I should've asked the Chief about her before I left, well maybe some other time I guess.

I walked out of the Gate and into the dense forest following the usual path I take to reach the house.

I guess no one has found it yet thanks to this forest, were pretty deep in after all there's also the mobs.

I finally reached the house. I opened the front door and everyone was waiting. Terra immediately saw me and threw herself onto me in glee.

Each of them greeting me excluding Levi who wasn't there.

"Yay! Big brother is back!" Terra said while tightly hugging me.

"Oh Zach your back" Ander said.

"Ah, Welcome back Zach." Lilith said.

"W-Welcome back." Sherry said

"How was today's training?" Alice asked.

"Alright I guess." I said trying to hide my bandages from their line of sights, with no avail though.

Alice's eyes widened at the sight of my bandages.

"Bandages?!" Alice exclaimed.

Once she said that the rest of them also took a few seconds to examine me and saw the bandage as well and had the same reaction as Alice.

"Uhm..." I said nervously.

"Are you alright? Do you need anything? Here I'll go get some thing!" Alice exclaimed about to rush to our supply storage.

"What happened?!" Ander exclaimed.

"Who did this to you?!" Lilith exclaimed.

"Big Brother?!" Terra exclaimed.

I stared at them with an amazed expression with no words to say.

Yeah it really feels like it. That's why I have to protect them with all I've got to make up for the mistakes I made in the past.

"Zach?" Alice said puzzled.

"Ah. Sorry for making you worry. I'll tell you all about it over dinner." I said giving them a gentle smile.

All they could do was sigh and smile.

"Well, your safe and that's all the matters. Come on we should probably start eating before Levi throws another tantrum from starvation." Ander said.

"Yeah, come on!" Christia called out.

"Zach~, Terra has a new recipe she want you to try." Lilith said.

"Hey! That was going to be a surprise!" Terra exclaimed.

"Alright, I'm coming." I said with a smile.

With that another day ended. The rest of the month flew by without any problems, not really but it was just the usual problems nothing we couldn't manage. I would follow my regular schedule of training and hunting as well as making some time for the girls. If I were to place it into one word, it was bliss... until it happened.

All hell broke loose...

UPDATE CONCLUDED

OMG! FINALLY FINISHED!

I want to make my story good paced so, that would mean not much romance yet, only signs of it and ships...

I had this cramped up in my head for months and finally I'm about to finish it! The first Arc that is.

Alright everyone I'll see you all on the next Chapter.

PLS CRITISIZE


	23. NOT AN UPDATE

**Ok everyone... now this is not an update as most of you know I am not publishing anything here not anymore until this site grants original stories to its list of categories and not just Fanfics though that is the name of site.**

 **Now the reason I am writing this is because one for the new people reading my discontinued story and two I have a little problem with my *cough* *cough* Editor/friend. He is the same guy who recommended me the new site and roasted my story on my FB. If this guy finds my story on the new site, he is going to bug me every day with roasts until I complete my series.**

 **If your wondering why I switched, one I wanted to make my fanfic an original series subtracting the Minecraft from it, two there was no way I was going to be able to keep focusing on MC in this story for too long to make it go on forever, three no one reviews on this site unless they are the author's follower RRL according to my friend has a more expressive audience.**

 **Royal Road Legends. Cant put the link cuz this site is sensitive to them, but put this in and you should find it.**

 **I cannot tell you the name of my series just in case he finds out. My username will more or less be the same, add an "a" before the "x" (not capital)**

 **I can only tell you with the initials "ITEOI". If you could find 5 words with those initial and more or less the same username you got it right.**

 **If you desperately want to know, ask my friend "Tonightskyarmy" or any of my followers who have faved for the title.**

 **PS: I might do a DBD fanfic, or... if I see it, I am really eager to try it Postknight. HEY! HEY! YOU STFU! ITS A CUTE GAME!**

 **Also try to recommend me games with no story to them, I'd like to try them writing some Original stories for them given that I have the time, that was why I picked Minecraft.**


	24. I'm coming back! Soon(NOT AN UPDATE)

Hey guys, still remember me or maybe not. Its been a while... I don't know how long but, a while since I've been here. So if you guys are wondering why I am posting something is because, I'm coming back! Sigh... I don't know but I feel depressed all of a sudden. Anyway, so to give you guys the heads up its almost done... A work I can be proud off as an author. I've really changed a bunch of stuff, making it look original or one of your typical litrpg + rebirth stories. Most of the aspects and traits of the old story are still the same and all, just twisted it a bit to get rid of that minecraft feeling. I know some people are going to call me an SAO VR cunt once I post this new story, but we'll just see.

Look, I don't really know if I've improved or not from the time I was away, but I want to use this opportunity to thank you guys and give something back, to the ones before that supported the old story I posted here and helping me improve as an author. I also welcome the new people to my old and new story and hopefully you guys might like it.

So I have no clue when I will be posting it, I plan that it would either be Christmas/ New Years, but who knows, though I promise that I will post it, please wait for me until then!

Thank you to all of you, and I will see you when the update hits.


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